Archive #1 by Werdnabot /Archive 2 /Archive 3 /Archive 4 /Archive 5 /Archive 6 /Archive 7 /Archive 8 /Archive 9 /Archive 10 /Archive 11 /Archive 12 /Archive 13 /Archive 14 /Archive 15

Now the talk page is blank, and we cant have that. I dont often do this, but here goes:

		All Around Amazing Barnstar
		For being the sickest chick on the block ;) Much love and respect sis, Nableezy 17:43, 8 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Shukran akhoui ... much love and respect right back at you. Tiamut^talk 18:15, 8 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia! We welcome and appreciate your contributions, such as Tawfiq Canaan, but we regretfully cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from either web sites or printed material. This article appears to contain material copied from http://www.jerusalemquarterly.org/images/ArticlesPdf/16_canaan.pdf, and therefore to constitute a violation of Wikipedia's copyright policies. The copyrighted text has been or will soon be deleted. While we appreciate contributions, we must require all contributors to understand and comply with our copyright policy. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators are liable to be blocked from editing.

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• If you own the copyright to the material: send an e-mail from an address associated with the original publication to permissions-en(at)wikimedia(dot)org or a postal message to the Wikimedia Foundation permitting re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License and GNU Free Documentation License, and note that you have done so on Talk:Tawfiq Canaan. See Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials for instructions.

It may also be necessary for the text be modified to have an encyclopedic tone and to follow Wikipedia article layout. For more information on Wikipedia's policies, see Wikipedia's policies and guidelines.

If you would like to begin working on a new version of the article you may do so at this temporary page. Leave a note at Talk:Tawfiq Canaan saying you have done so and an administrator will move the new article into place once the issue is resolved. Thank you, and please feel welcome to continue contributing to Wikipedia. Happy editing! GabrielF (talk) 07:55, 9 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Tiamut. This message is being sent to inform you that there currently is a discussion at Contributor copyright investigations concerning your contributions in relation to Wikipedia's copyrights policy. The listing can be found here. For some suggestions on responding, please see Responding to a CCI case. Thank you. GabrielF (talk) 08:44, 9 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Re your query at CCI, the article is still there, the termplate just uses a CSS class to make it non-visible. Just view the history, and click on the diff link before the template was added to view the article.

FWIW, I don't think you've got much to worry about. I'd recommend leaving it to the copyright experts for now, and staying cool (but I know you'll do that anyway!). Regards,

--NSH001 (talk) 17:06, 9 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the explanation NSH001. There are places in the articles listed where I could have one a better job summarizing and synthesizing information from the available sources. Making them non-visible seems a little harsh, but I trust that things will be worked out with more eyes. Thanks for the reassurance. Its a little embarassing, that's all. I pride myself on making valuable contribs, not half ass ones, but Its possible I can when I'm short of time and running on empty. Oh well ... I'll just have go atone by making them much better. Tiamut^talk 17:20, 9 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'll make a first run at Defence (Emergency) Regulations, I have some good sources. Incidentally I discovered that I have access to an almost complete set of the Palestine Gazette (where the British administration published all laws and other official stuff). These 1945 regulations go on for about 40 pages! They could have saved a lot of paper by summarizing it as "The High Commission can do whatever the *^$!@ he wants.", which would have been more or less the same. Zero^talk 00:58, 10 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

In democracies, many pages are required for that kind of license; the essence of the legislation is hidden behind reams of text that mot people won't bother to read (see the PATRIOT act for example). Anyway, thanks for your changes there. I'm going to have my hands full the next few days and won't be around much, so I appreciate your help in resolving that one. Would have been nice if GabrielF chose to spend his time fixing the articles, rather than filing a report. No matter though, as more eyes means the possibility for more editors to improve what was there. Happy editing. Tiamut^talk 14:58, 10 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Nissan Rilov is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Nissan Rilov until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on good quality evidence, and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion template from the top of the article. GabrielF (talk) 16:31, 11 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Tiamut,

I don't have any problem with you personally - I have disagreed with you on several occasions, but I've respected the style in which you argue for your viewpoint. I felt that the compromises reached in several cases (Faris Odeh being one) were quite good. I believe the explanation that you offered on the CCI page that you are closely following sources in order to avoid controversy. I understand the difficulty, but you do still have to follow the standard practices. The CCI process is not designed to be punitive. I AfD'd Nissan Rilov as part of the process of fixing these issues - since there appears to be only one source available, which is a personal tribute to a friend, I'm not sure how to rewrite the article. I don't want to make this a personal dispute. If you would feel more comfortable I will abstain from working any further on this issue and leave it up to others who have experience with copyright issues. GabrielF (talk) 16:54, 11 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Please could you advise as how best to get Palestinian costumes back into the encyclopedia? Do I just go into edit and re-word anything that is close to the PCA article? It does seem exceptionally petty - particularly as someone claiming ownership of the PCA material actually edited the page after your contributions... best wishes Padres Hana (talk) 16:55, 12 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Tiamut dear; I do not have the Stillman or Weir -books at the moment. I´m going to re-order the Weir-book (it´s great!), and get the Stillman-book back from the library, eventually. Both of them, and especially Weir, relies partly on old travel-books and descriptions. When we last worked on this, most of those old books were not online; now they are. We can always quote these older, (=in public domain) texts verbatim (That is what I am doing all the time on the villages! ).

Also; now we have a huge amount of pictures to choose from (what a change from 3-4 years back!)

Anyway; updating all the 1596-villages is my first priority, just now... Cheers, Huldra (talk) 19:38, 21 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Bravo to you two for getting this back together. I am recovering from ten days visiting producer groups in Bethlehem, Surif, Idna, Sulafa, Atfaluna, Ramallah Melkite Center, Lakiya, Sindyana ... lots of photos of modern work. One of the reasons I have held off returning to wikipedia was the thought of having to look at the wreckage of this article: Many thanks. Padres Hana (talk) 11:29, 23 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have the Weir book - if I can help please point me in the right direction. Padres Hana (talk) 07:57, 8 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. When you recently edited Nissan Rilov, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Israeli (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

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I have uploaded a scan of a French-language interview with Nissan Rilov as requested by User:RolandR at the resource exchange. You can find a link to the scan there. Best, GabrielF (talk) 18:46, 14 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors; award recipients; contest results Articles: The month's Featured and A-class content Book reviews: Nick-D looks into two recent Milhist books Op-ed: Hawkeye on Wikipedia collaborating with the AWM

Hello! Your submission of Hana Shalabi at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and there still are some issues that may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! Ishtar456 (talk) 21:22, 26 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The DYK project (nominate) 16:02, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

We are over half way through the second round of this year's WikiCup and things are going well! Grapple X (submissions), of Pool B, is our highest overall scorer thanks to his prolific writings on television and film. In second place is Pool H's Cwmhiraeth (submissions), thanks primarily to work on biological articles, especially in marine biology and herpetology. Third place goes to Pool E's Casliber (submissions), who also writes primarily on biology (including ornithology and botany) and has already submitted two featured articles this round. Of the 63 contestants remaining, 15 (just under a quarter) have over 100 points this round. However, 25 are yet to score. Please remember to update your submission pages promptly. 32 contestants, the top two from each pool and the 16 next-highest scorers, will advance to round 3.

Congratulations to Matthewedwards (submissions), whose impressive File:Wacht am Rhein map (Opaque).svg became the competition's first featured picture. Also, congratulations to 12george1 (submissions), who claimed good topic points, our first contestant this year to do so, for his work on Wikipedia:Featured topics/1982 Atlantic hurricane season. This leaves featured topics and featured portals as the only sources of points not yet utilised. However, as recent statistics from Miyagawa (submissions) show, no source has yet been utilised this competition to the same extent it has been previously!

It has been observed that the backlogs at good article candidates are building up again. While the points for good article reviews will be remaining constant, any help that can be offered keeping the backlog down would be appreciated. On a related note, if you are concerned that your nomination, be it at good article candidates, a featured process or anywhere else, will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start receiving or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 23:29, 31 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Dispute Resolution – Survey Invite Hello Tiamut. I am currently conducting a study on the dispute resolution processes on the English Wikipedia, in the hope that the results will help improve these processes in the future. Whether you have used dispute resolution a little or a lot, now we need to know about your experience. The survey takes around five minutes, and the information you provide will not be shared with third parties other than to assist in analyzing the results of the survey. No personally identifiable information will be released. Please click HERE to participate. Many thanks in advance for your comments and thoughts. You are receiving this invitation because you have had some activity in dispute resolution over the past year. For more information, please see the associated research page. Steven Zhang DR goes to Wikimania! 01:42, 6 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hey there, I was wondering if you are free and can help me by writing this missing section. Let me know and thanks in advance. -- The Egyptian Liberal (talk) 05:45, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry for the late reply. I'm on wikibreak these days o I won't be able to be of help. Good luck and happy editing. Tiamut^talk 15:11, 9 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

ICHTHUS

May 2012

From the Editor

This month marks the observation of Pentecost, one of the most important feast of the Christian liturgical year. It is our hope here that all of you, regardless of your religious affiliation (if any), find that the holiday, and its accompanying activities, an enjoyable and beneficial experience. We also hope that this "Birthday of the Church" is one which gives you the same joy as the birthday of yourself or your loved ones.

Ichthus is the successor to the long running WikiProject Christianity newsletter, run under the WikiProject Christianity’s Outreach department. As such, you will continue to see information about our latest featured and good articles, DYKs, as well as new members who have joined our project. You might also see links to Christianity related news from the mainstream media!

With that, I wish you all happy reading!

John Carter, Asst. Editor

P.S. Please click here to add the new Christianity-related topics Noticeboard to your watchlist to follow the latest discussions relevant to WikiProject Christianity and subprojects.

Help Bring Wikipe-tan "into the fold"

As many of you may know, our unofficial mascot, dear Wikipe-tan, hasn't yet indicated any particular beliefs. However, yes, as we all know, ahem, some people might object to our beloved mascot running around in a French maid outfit. People do talk, you know. ;) If anyone might be able to develop an image of the dear lady in a image more, well, "Christian," I would like to see perhaps a vote for next month as to which, if any, image of the dear girl we might make our own unofficial mascot. Please post your images here.

By John Carter

Christianity in other wikis

As many of you might now, there are a large number of other Wikimedia Foundation projects, including WikiSource, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, WikiQuote, and others. I certainly believe that Wikibooks and Wikiquote might be among the more directly relevant sister projects. If any of you can think of any particular efforts in these other projects which you think would benefit from more input, please let us know here, so we can help spread the word around.

By John Carter

Spotlight on the Outreach department

Ichthus will spotlight a different subproject or workgroup of WikiProject Christianity. This edition will spotlight on our vital Outreach department. This comparatively small, but vital, project unit is dedicated to welcoming new editors to Wikipedia and the Christianity related content, and to providing information to the various project members, in forms like this newsletter.

The scope of articles with which this group deals is truly enormous, and, given the wide variety of material with which we deal, we would very much welcome the input of more individuals, particularly individuals who are particularly knowledgeable of the less well-known and less frequently monitored articles related to Christianity.

Speaking personally, I would be very, very gratified if we were to have this become a very, very large and active unit, with members from the broad spectrum of Christian beliefs, practices, and groups. The broader the spectrum and areas of expertise of members we have, the better we will be able to help manage the content. Please consider whether you believe you might be able to contribute in this vital area.

By John Carter

---

Ichthus is the newsletter of Christianity on Wikipedia • It is published by WikiProject Christianity
For submissions contact the Newsroom • To unsubscribe add yourself to the list here
EdwardsBot (talk) 20:47, 29 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Round 2 of this year's WikiCup is over, and so we are down to our final 32, in what could be called our quarter-finals. The two highest scorers from each pool, as well as the next 16 highest scorers overall, have entered round 3, while 30 participants have been eliminated. Pool B's Grapple X (submissions) remains our top scorer with over 700 points; he continues to gain high numbers of points for his good articles on The X-Files, but also Millennium and other subjects. He has also gained points for a good topic, a featured list, multiple good article reviews and several did you knows. Pool E's Casliber (submissions) was second, thanks primarily to his biology articles, with Pool H's Muboshgu (submissions) coming in third, with an impressive 46 did you knows, mostly on the subject of baseball. Casliber and Cwmhiraeth both scored over 600 points. Pools E and H proved our most successful, with each seeing 5 members qualify for round 3, while Pools C and D were the least, with each seeing only 3 reach round 3. However, it was Pool G which saw the lowest scoring, with a little under 400 points combined; Pool H, the highest scoring group, saw over triple that score.

65 points was the lowest qualifying score for round 3; significantly higher than the 11 required to enter round 2, and also higher than the 41 required to reach round 3 last year. However, in 2010, 100 points were needed to secure a place in round 3. 16 will progress to round 4. In round 3, 150 points was the 16th highest score, though, statistically, people tend to up their game a little in later rounds. Last year, 76 points secured a place, while in 2010, a massive 250 points were needed. Guessing how many points will be required is not easy. We still have not seen any featured portals or topics this year, but, on the subject of less common content types, a small correction needs to be made to the previous newsletter: File:Wacht am Rhein map (Opaque).svg, our first featured picture, was the work of both Matthewedwards (submissions) and Grandiose (submissions), the latter of whom has also gone on to score with File:Map of the Battle of Guam, 1944.svg. Bonus points also continue to roll in; this round, Ealdgyth (submissions) earned triple points for her good articles on William the Conqueror and the Middle Ages, Casliber and Cwmhiraeth both earned triple points for their work on Western Jackdaw, now a good article, Dana Boomer (submissions) earned triple points for her work on lettuce and work by Stone (submissions) to ready antimony for good article status earned him triple points. Jarry1250 (submissions) managed to expand Vitus Bering far enough for a did you know, which was also worth triple points. All of these highly important topics featured on 50 or more Wikipedias at the start of the year.

An article on the WikiCup in the Wikimedia Blog, "Improving Wikipedia with friendly competition", was posted at the end of April. This may be of interest to those who are signed up to this newsletter, as well as serving as another way to draw attention to our project. Also, we would again like to thank Jarry1250 (submissions) and Stone (submissions), for continued help behind the scenes. As ever, if you are concerned that your nomination, be it at good article candidates, a featured process or anywhere else, will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start receiving or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 23:23, 30 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors; award recipients; contest results Articles: The month's Featured and A-class content Book reviews: Bomzibar on Subhas Chandra Bose; Hawkeye on corps commanders; Nick-D on American special forces Op-ed: The Land on commemorating World War I

hello Tiamut,

I notice your sandbox musha' page. I have been looking at British land administration in Palestine and thought you might be interested in a essay I found:

Nadan, Amos. “Colonial Misunderstanding of an Efficient Peasant Institution: Land Settlement and Mushāʿ Tenure in Mandate Palestine, 1921-47.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 46, no. 3 (January 1, 2003): 320–354.

Nadan makes a convincing argument that:

quote from pp. 320-321

There is an accepted scholarly wisdom regarding the musha' (communal land) in Mandate Palestine: that it was an archaic system, an obstacle to investment that blocked any chance of development.' This attitude was inherited from the British officials who argued that "under this system.... no one [had] any inducement to improve his land."...But this study of the musha' contradicts that wisdom. It shows that the musha' was an efficient, dynamic economic institution that facilitated investment. Consequently, there was no need for land reform. Moreover, the reform proved destructive to the economy of the fallāḥ‎īn (Arab agriculturists, of whom the vast majority were peasants, singular:fallāh) as it nullifiedt he advantages inherent in the system, and facilitated the transfer of lands from Arabs to Jews.

pp. 327

Ernest M. Dowson, who designed the land settlement programme in Palestine, admitted that the British obligation to the Jews accelerated the need for a new order in land registration.

pp.337

...It can be concluded, therefore, that there is no evidence to support the claim of inefficiency. Rather, the musha' was an efficient, though informal, institution, path-dependent but not in a negative, outdated manner.

Hope this helps.

Yours ever, Czar Brodie (talk) 13:36, 2 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for this interesting info. I'm on a bit of a wikibreak these days. Please feel free to edit that page and move it into mainspace yourself. If its not something you get around to before I get back to editing, I'll try to do it myself. Much appreciated though. Take care, Tiamut^talk 15:10, 9 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors; award recipients; contest results Articles: The month's Featured and A-class content Book reviews: Bomzibar on Chiang Kai-shek; Nick-D on the Falklands War Interview: Article writers discuss biographies Op-ed: Nick-D examines using news articles as sources

We're halfway through round 3 (or the quarter finals, if you prefer) and things are running smoothly. We're seeing very high scoring; as of the time of writing, the top 16 all have over 90 points. This has already proved to be more competative than this time last year- in 2011, 76 points secured a place, while in 2010, a massive 250 was the lowest qualifying score. People have also upped their game slightly from last round, which is to be expected as we approach the end of the competition. Leading Pool A is Cwmhiraeth (submissions), whose points have mostly come from a large number of did you knows on marine biology. Pool B's leader, Grapple X (submissions), is for the first time not our highest scorer at the time of newsletter publication, but his good articles on The X-Files and Millenium keep him in second place overall. Miyagawa (submissions) leads Pool C, our quietest pool, with content in a variety of areas on a variety of topics. Pool D is led by Casliber (submissions), our current overall leader. Nearly half of Casliber's points come from his triple-scored Western Jackdaw, which is now a featured article.

This round has seen an unusually high number of featured lists, with nearly one in five remaining participants claiming one, and one user, Muboshgu (submissions), claiming two. Miyagawa's featured list, 1936 Summer Olympics medal table, was even awarded double points. By comparison, good article reviews seem to be playing a smaller part, and featured topics portals remain two content-types still unutilised in this competition. Other than that, there isn't much to say! Things are coming along smoothly. As ever, if you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 23:47, 31 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

for the barnstar! It's greatly appreciated - was helpful motivation as I was finishing the mind numbing task of organising a huge list of hundreds of names! Oncenawhile (talk) 18:53, 4 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You are welcome. It is well deserved. Tiamut^talk 17:17, 5 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

User:Tiamut, these two edits at Az-Zakariyya violated WP:1RR and you need to revert one of them. Also, visitors to your Talk page should not have to have political soapboxing be the first thing they see when they wanna leave you a message. You should relocate anything like that to your User page proper.—Biosketch (talk) 19:39, 4 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like a self-RV ought to solve the first problem. As for the second issue, Biosketch's point is completely meritless and thusly can be ignored. -asad (talk) 20:03, 4 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, a self-revert will solve the first problem. The second issue is governed by the behavioral guideline at WP:TALK:

The purpose of a Wikipedia talk page...is to provide space for editors to discuss changes to its associated article or project page. Article talk pages should not be used by editors as platforms for their personal views on a subject.

When pages in other namespaces are used for discussion and communication between users, the same norms will usually also apply.

Seems pretty clear. Asad, persuading an editor to ignore a sincere appeal left on their Talk page is neither helpful nor mature.—Biosketch (talk) 20:23, 4 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What's clear is the pettiness of a certain user to complain about direct quotes on a user page. Your misrepresentation of WP policy is neither helpful nor mature. You might find benefit in seeking the correct policy page for information on the matter. WP:UP#NOT -20:46, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

That's interesting, Asad. It says there, "...especially when initiated by committed Wikipedians with good edit histories." Do you think that referencing other editors' putative race or color in the course of a content dispute is indicative of a good edit history?—Biosketch (talk) 21:07, 4 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Dude, you once removed the Palestinian flag from WikiProject Palestine. By your standards, that would be enough for someone like me (and surely many others) to assume a bad edit history on your part. -asad (talk) 12:56, 5 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That comment is extremely unbecoming. I've no idea what your edit history is like but just from that comment I would be tempted to presume it wasn't good. Luckily I'm a bit more mature than that. And while you're perfectly free to ask Tiamut to remove items you disagree with, your claim that it conflicts with policy is pure nonsense. A user is perfectly free to express their personal views in their userspace. Osiris (talk) 12:01, 5 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Asad, Osiris for your comments. About 1RR, I'm going to wager that my second edit was not a revert. I'm not going to restore that material because it is unsourced and uncited and no one defends its inclusion in the article or has taken issue with its deletion. If Biosketch would like to see it returned to the article, he is welcome to state why on the talk page.

About my user talk page quotes, I'm not going to remove them. I have to see all sorts of things I don't like in life. I deal. So can Biosketch or anyone else who disagrees with what the quotes say. Tiamut^talk 16:56, 5 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

User:Tiamut, I'm happy to put off discussion of the political propaganda's appropriateness on this Talk page to a later time. For now you should know that there's an AE case involving your 1RR violation at Az-Zakariyya here.—Biosketch (talk)

Thank you Biosketch for ensuring that the few free moments I have to spend editing Wikipedia are havily peppered with pedantry and general unpleasantness. Tiamut^talk 18:54, 5 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Tiamut, I'm going to withdraw the request for enforcement against you since you've self-reverted pursuant to the AE. Next time just do it when people ask you to in good faith and further such episodes will be avoided. You've convinced yourself that this is about ego and personal vendettas. That's a delusion you're free to continue nourishing if it's what gives you a sense of purpose, just as User:Asad112 can continue nourishing the delusion that I once removed a Palestinian flag from a wikiproject template because he's been made uncomfortable by a question he was asked. The reality is is that you violated 1RR, were advised politely to self-revert, chose to rationalize your violation, and hoped that obstinacy would deter a report of the violation. As a lesson, then, returning now to the political propaganda above that has nothing to do with facilitating discussion among editors on your Talk page and instead serves only to fuel suspicion and resentment, you're being asked – again, politely, without any of the drama and time-consumption of noticeboards – to relocate the content to your User page proper. I sincerely hope, though admittedly I'm skeptical, that your response will be to consider the request in a spirit of good faith.—Biosketch (talk) 04:52, 6 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Ahlam Shibli is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ahlam Shibli (2nd nomination) until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion template from the top of the article.  Ronhjones  ^(Talk) 21:50, 11 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

ICHTHUS

June 2012

Membership report

The parent Christianity WikiProject currently has 331 active members. We would like to welcome User:Sanju87, User:Psalm84, User:Zegron, User:Jargon777, User:Calu2000, User:Gilderien, User:Ronallenus, Thank you all for your interest in this effort. If any members, new or not, wish any assistance, they should feel free to leave a message at the Christianity noticeboard or with me or other individual editors to request it.

From the Editor

Ichthus is one of the ways that the WikiProject Christianity’s Outreach department helps update our members. We have recently added some new sections to the newsletter. Please let us know what you think of the new departments, and if there are any other suggestions for departments you would like to see. And if you have anything you would personally like to add, by all means let us know. The talk page of the current issue is probably the best place to post such comments.

With that, I wish you all happy reading!

P.S. Please click here to add the new Christianity noticeboard to your watchlist to follow the latest discussions relevant to WikiProject Christianity and subprojects.

Church of the month

by Berthold Werner Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai

Vote for the project mascot

We had last month asked our members to help "bring into the fold" Wikipe-tan as the project's mascot. Voting will take place this month for which image we should adopt at Wikipedia:WikiProject Christianity/Outreach/Wikipe-tan. Please take a moment to review the images and vote for whichever is your favorite, or, if you so prefer, suggest an additional one.

By John Carter

DYK

• ...that Anna of Kashin, a Russian medieval princess, was twice canonized as a holy protectress of women who suffer the loss of relatives?

Calendar

Thie coming month includes days dedicated to the honor of Beheading of John the Baptist, Saints Peter and Paul, the Nativity of John the Baptist, and Saint Barnabas.

Featured content and GA report

Alec Douglas-Home recently achieved FA status. This picture, in the Church of the Month section, was recently promoted to Featured Picture status. Our thanks and congratulations to all those involved.

Wikimedia Foundation report

Wikisource currently has many old texts available, most of them in the public domain. This is a potentially very valuable source for several things, including for instance links to Biblical verses, because we know that it will, basically, be around as long as we are.

By user:John Carter with inspiration from History2007

Christian art

This section would include a rather large image of a specific work of art, with a link to the most directly relevant article.

Suggestion: Resurrection of Christ, an English 15th century Nottingham alabaster. Groups of painted relief panels were sold via dealers to churches on a budget , who had wood frameworks made to hold them locally. From a huge new donation of images from the Walters Art Museum to Commons, see

By Johnbod

Spotlight

A new WikiProject relating directly to Christian history is being developed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Christian history. Also, a group specifically devoted to the Mennonites and other Anabaptists is now up and running at Wikipedia:WikiProject Christianity/Anabaptist work group. Anyone interested in assisting with the development of these groups and topics is more than welcome to do so.

By John Carter

I believe

... in the statements contained in the Nicene Creed. I believe that the Bible is one of the two defining bases for belief. The other is the Sacred tradition, which provides us with means of interpreting the Scriptures, as well as some teachings which have been handed on by God outside of the scriptures. I believe that the Magisterium has been empowered to fill this interpretative function. I believe that clerical celibacy is a rule that should generally be followed. I am a member of the Catholic Church.

By John Carter

Help requests

Please let us know if there are any particular areas, either individual articles or topics, which you believe would benefit from outside help from a variety of other editors. We will try to include such requests in future issues.

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Ichthus is the newsletter of Christianity on Wikipedia • It is published by WikiProject Christianity
For submissions contact the Newsroom • To unsubscribe add yourself to the list here
EdwardsBot (talk) 02:55, 12 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Cto has been nominated for deletion. Template:Cto creates a conditional topic overview linkbox for the See also section of an article with links to (1) the topic article, (2) the outline of the topic, (3) the index of topic-related articles, (4) the bibliography of the topic, and (5) the Wikipedia book on the topic. You are invited to comment on the discussion at Wikipedia:Templates for discussion#Template:Cto. Yours aye,  Buaidh  20:02, 12 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi there. I'm currently trying to resolve issues on an article: Anti-Christian sentiment particularly pertaining to incidents in Israel. I have opened a RfC and outlined the problem here. I would be grateful to have your input should you feel so inclined and think it worth your time. Regards, Veritycheck (talk) 22:10, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors; award recipients; contest results Articles: The month's Featured and A-class content Book reviews: Nick-D on the Chaco War and the Bougainville Campaign Op-ed: Remembering conflict

Apologies for the lateness of this letter; our usual bot wasn't working. We are now entering round 4, our semi-finals, and have our final 16. A score of 243 was required to reach this round; significantly more than 2011's 76 points, and only a little behind 2010's 250 points. By comparison, last year, 150 points in round 4 secured a place in the final; in 2010, 430 were needed. Commiserations to Pool A's igordebraga (submissions), who scored 242 points, missing out on a place in the round by a whisker. However, congratulations to Pool B's Grapple X (submissions), whose television articles have brought him another round victory. Pool A's Cwmhiraeth (submissions) came second overall, with an impressive list of biological did you knows, good articles and featured articles. Third overall was Pool D's Muboshgu (submissions), with a long list of contibutions, mostly relating to baseball. Of course, with the points resetting every round, the playing field has been levelled. The most successful Pool was Pool D, which saw seven into the final round. Pool B saw four, C saw three and Pool A saw only the two round leaders.

A quick note about other competitions taking place on Wikipedia which may be of interest. There are 13 days remaining in the June-July GAN backlog elimination drive, but it is not too late to take part. August will also see the return of The Core Contest- a one month long competition first run in 2007. While the WikiCup awards points for audited content on any subject, The Core Contest about is raw article improvement, focussing heavily on the most important articles on Wikipedia. As ever, if you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 11:12, 2 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Marhaba Tiamut, glad to see you around! If you're still editing in the coming days, I thought I'd ask you for a favor. I started the Nasser, Gaza and Sabra, Gaza articles and got some info from Mariam Shahin's Palestine: A Guide. Unfortunately, I only got a snippet view. If you own the book, could you add the info provided on pages 430-445 on those two neighborhoods as well as Tuffah, Shuja'iyya, Rimal, etc. or if possible scan the pages? If you have the time of course. I would appreciate it. Salam, --Al Ameer son (talk) 03:21, 3 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced that book. Its either in a huge unsorted pile or I lent it to a visitor who did not return it, as sometimes happens. If it turns up, I'll add what I can. Good to see you too. Tiamut^talk 15:24, 3 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have this book, but a few times I have seen things in it that aren't true. I think that sometimes it records local understandings rather than scholarly research. I'll look at the mentioned sections. Zero^talk 02:03, 21 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Appreciate it Zero. I'm not crazy about it either, but I found no other sources dealing with Gaza's newer neighborhoods (i.e. from the 20th-century) so I think it could be pretty valuable in this regard. Thanks again, --Al Ameer son (talk) 02:40, 21 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, they are quite difficult topics for finding sources. I'll scan the relevant pages early next week. Zero^talk 03:09, 21 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Is the Arabic name written correctly? It appears as يعقوق‎ but in both Hutteroth and the 1931 census (p85) the first letter is different. Also Khalidi (p546) writes it the other way. Zero^talk 02:09, 6 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It should be written ياقوق - the problem is the second letter, which should be ا or alif, instead of ع or 'ain. Thanks for spotting that. Tiamut^talk 16:22, 6 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

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ICHTHUS

July 2012

Membership report
The parent Christianity WikiProject currently has 336 active members. We would like to welcome User:Emilymadcat, User:Toa Nidhiki05, User:DonutGuy, and User:RCNesland, Thank you all for your interest in this effort. If any members, new or not, wish any assistance, they should feel free to leave a message at the Christianity noticeboard or with me or other individual editors to request it.

From the Editor
Ichthus is one of the ways that the WikiProject Christianity’s Outreach department helps update our members. We have recently added some new sections to the newsletter. Please let us know what you think of the new departments, and if there are any other suggestions for departments you would like to see. And if you have anything you would personally like to add, by all means let us know. The talk page of the current issue is probably the best place to post such comments.

With that, I wish you all happy reading!

P.S. Please click here to add the new Christianity noticeboard to your watchlist to follow the latest discussions relevant to WikiProject Christianity and subprojects.

Church of the month

by User:JaGa Mission Santa Clara de Asis

Vote for the project mascot
We had last month asked our members to help "bring into the fold" Wikipe-tan as the project's mascot. Voting will take place this month for which image we should adopt at Wikipedia:WikiProject Christianity/Outreach/Wikipe-tan. Please take a moment to review the images and vote for whichever is your favorite, or, if you so prefer, suggest an additional one.

By John Carter

Calendar
Thie coming month (mid-July through mid-September) includes days dedicated to the honor of Mary Magdalene, James, son of Zebedee, Ignatius Loyola, Saint Dominic, Joseph of Arimathea, and the Transfiguration of Jesus.

Featured content and GA report
Grade I listed churches in Cheshire was recently promoted to Featured List status. This picture was recently promoted to Featured Picture status. Bartolome de las Casas and Edmund the Martyr were promoted to GA level this past month. Our thanks and congratulations to all those involved.

Wikimedia Foundation report

Wikibooks welcomes the development of textbooks of all kinds, children's books, recipes, and other material. It currently has just under 2500 books, including several Wikijunior books for the 12 and under population. There is, at present, not even a book on Christianity. Anyone interested in helping develop such a textbook is more than welcome to do so.

By John Carter

Christian art

The portrait of Sir Thomas More by Hans Holbein the Younger.

By John Carter

Spotlight
A new WikiProject relating directly to Christian history is being developed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Christian history. Anyone interested in assisting with the development of these groups and topics is more than welcome to do so.

By John Carter

I believe
... in the tradition of Thomas the Apostle, Mar Addai, and Saint Bartholomew. I believe that Jesus had two essences (or natures), human and divine, unmingled, that are everlastingly united in one personality. I am a member of the Assyrian Church of the East.

By John Carter

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Help requests
Please let us know if there are any particular areas, either individual articles or topics, which you believe would benefit from outside help from a variety of other editors. We will try to include such requests in future issues.

Ichthus is the newsletter of Christianity on Wikipedia • It is published by WikiProject Christianity
For submissions contact the Newsroom • To unsubscribe add yourself to the list here
EdwardsBot (talk) 15:50, 17 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Ramadan karim, wa yanhad alaikum al saha. Hopefully you could make that out ;) Salam, --Al Ameer son (talk) 20:13, 20 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you Tiamut, Ramadan Karim to you too. العين ح تنتصر ع المخرز من سورية للبحرين متل ما كل يوم بفلسطين. Bossat la elkon kelkon. Yazan (talk) 17:39, 21 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, Guerin writes quite a lot about several of the villages in Palestine. Much of it is speculations about which Biblical town/village such and such place could be; that is mostly not so interesting, as the knowledge have been "updated " since then. However, he also makes notes about the "present" (ie about 1870) situation of the villages; where they get their water, details about their herds, condition of houses, etc. (This much I understand from using translate.google.com!)

This is, IMO, quite interesting and should go into the article. However, I don´t read French! I can always find the page in Guerin where he writes about it, and link it, but could you translate some more of what he writes? Talluza would be a place to start (...almost a DYK..)

Also, again: I can find (from the grid-no) whether it is mentioned in Dauphin or not, and list the page; however, again: it is in French. I assume you have Dauphin? (on disc). Could you "flesh out" more of what she writes? Cheers, & take care, Huldra (talk) 22:19, 25 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I checked Guerin and in terms of the present (1870) situation of the village, you already have included most of what he says, with the exception of a note by him on the lack of a spring in the village and the use of cisterns instead, and the neighbouring villages one can see from there (and these facts are already mentioned, more or less, in the geography section). If you give me the page for Dauphin, I will add what he has to say (if anything). Tiamut^talk 08:26, 26 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Nevermind about the page number, I found it: its on page 767. But there's not much to add. Tiamut^talk 08:29, 26 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I sent both of you email. Btw, google translate is often sufficient to decode Dauphin or Guerin. But maybe you don't have OCRed editions of Guerin? Zero^talk 10:26, 27 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Zero, for the map. (The Aschelon-section looks overwhelming: like an ant-hill!) I do not have a OCRed editions of Guerin, so far I have managed by typing manually into google translate. (Hint: if you know anyone who has OCRed editions of Guerin, I would love to get a copy?)

I have just gotten a hard-copy of Hut. & Abdulfattah.; which I can at least keep until over the summer. I´ll try to concentrate on adding the data from there. (The big maps are quite interesting.)

Tiamut; I think updating Tubas is next on the list, see Talk:Tubas#SWP-stuff, if you have time. Some of the Guerin-stuff ( Samarie I 357ff) is translated in SWP: 147. However, quite a lot is not translated. (I see he mentions "tremblement de terre 1837" which I assume refers to the Galilee earthquake of 1837.) I never took a single lesson of French, so I dont like to use translate google for French, except for the simplest of cases. Cheers, Huldra (talk) 21:57, 1 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have OCRed files of Guerin. I ran them through Adobe Acrobat myself. Check your email (both of you) in 1-2 days. Zero^talk 01:44, 2 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Got them; thanks! I have found the indexes very useful (you might have seen that I have linked to them in the "book"-section); alas, I´ve also found quite a few mistakes there. The same goes for the SWP-index (fewer mistakes there, though). In short, the bad news is: you cannot fully trust any of the manually compiled indexes; you have to check for yourself. The good news is: with all the old books online, it is very easy to do so ;) Cheers, Huldra (talk) 22:46, 4 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't have much succes with the download but will try again tonight. Sorry I've been busy with family things and may well be for the next little while. Tiamut^talk 18:11, 6 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors: Wikimania 2012; special projects note Articles: The month's Featured and A-class content Book reviews: Nick-D on the Australian 25th Battalion Interview: Article writers discuss buildings and fortifications Op-ed: Hawkeye7 reports on a weekend workshop

Hello, Tiamut. You have new messages at Al Ameer son's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

--Al Ameer son (talk) 05:38, 31 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Also responded to your query at Talk:Hebron Governorate. --Al Ameer son (talk) 05:38, 31 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

We're approaching the beginning of 2012's final round. Pool A sees Cwmhiraeth (submissions) as the leader, with 300 points being awarded for the featured article Bivalvia, and Pool B sees Grapple X (submissions) in the lead, with 10 good articles, and over 35 articles eligible for good topic points. Pool A sees Muboshgu (submissions) in second place with a number of articles relating to baseball, while Pool B's Ruby2010 (submissions) follows Grapple X, with a variety of contributions including the high-scoring, high-importance featured article on the 2010 film Pride & Prejudice. Ruby2010, like Grapple X, also claimed a number of good topic points; despite this, not a single point has been claimed for featured topics in the contest so far. The same is true for featured portals.

Currently, the eighth-place competitor (and so the lowest scorer who would reach the final round right now) has scored 332, more than double the 150 needed to reach the final round last year. In 2010, however, 430 was the lowest qualifying score. In this competition, we have generally seen scores closer to those in 2010 than those in 2011. Let's see what kind of benchmark we can set for future competitions! As ever, if you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 22:35, 31 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Is there an article on this place? I don't see it. Some information is here (but I'm not sure if non-subscribers can read it). Zero^talk 01:24, 3 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see it either. Can't read the haaretz piece, but I'll give a look around to see what I can find. Tiamut^talk 18:08, 6 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Take a look at Mar Elias Educational Institutions#Mar Elias University. It seems that the NAI is a project of that group [1]. Need to look into the exact relationship further. Tiamut^talk 18:22, 6 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Two articles in The chronicle for higher Education [2], [3] - clarifies quite a few things. Tiamut^talk 18:32, 6 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Tiamut and Huldra, I'm having trouble identifying Qamun as a village in the modern era. Mandate-era maps and census show "Qira wa Qamun" as a village with only one site. So does Morris. There is a location Tell Keimun about 2km north that is in SWP II-69 and Guerin (Sam II-241), but they don't indicate a population there. In Dauphin, Tell Keimun is at 691-2 and Qira is at 694. Khalidi 181 lists only "Qira" and says it was called Qira wa Qamun due to its close association with Tall Qamun, but he doesn't say Qamun was a village and on p177 he just calls it a "mound". Any better sources? Zero^talk 07:14, 5 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Will look around for more, but it might not be a bad idea to merge them, if they were treated as one in the modern era. Tiamut^talk 18:10, 6 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Well, on p. 181 Khalidi does call Tall Qamon a "community", so he is not at all clear. However, Esber (2008, "Under the cover of war"), who in her book counts quite a lot more villages than Khalidi, still counts Qira wa Qamun as only one village (p.259, 388). So: I agree with Tiamut: if we cannot find any separate data for them in modern times, then lets merge them.

On another note, Tiamut: I had read somewhere ages ago that Felix Fabri visited Hebron, and made some observations about its glass-industry. I have finally found the reference (see Hebron glass): great fun to find such an early eye-witness! Cheers, Huldra (talk) 20:21, 6 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

ICHTHUS

August 2012

Membership report
The parent Christianity WikiProject currently has 341 active members. We would like to welcome our newest members, User:David_FLXD, User:Alexsbecker, User:Penguin 236, User:Gugi001, User:John D. Rockerduck, and User:Margaret9mary. Thank you all for your interest in this effort. If any members, new or not, wish any assistance, they should feel free to leave a message at the Christianity noticeboard or with me or other individual editors to request it.

From the Editor
Ichthus is one of the ways that the WikiProject Christianity’s Outreach department helps update our members. We have recently added some new sections to the newsletter. Please let us know if there are changes you would like to see in the format, or if there are any particular things you would like to see included. And if you have anything you would personally like to add, by all means let us know. The talk page of the current issue is probably the best place to post such comments.

With that, I wish you all happy reading!

P.S. Please click here to add the new Christianity noticeboard to your watchlist to follow the latest discussions relevant to WikiProject Christianity and subprojects.

By John Carter

Church of the month

by User:Diliff Frauenkirche (Church of Our Blessed Lady) in Munich, taken from the tower of St. Peter's Church

Contest of the month
We currently have a remarkable lack of Wikipedia:Wikipedia-Books. Right now, Category:Wikipedia books on Christianity contains only 12 books. We certainly could have at least one book on each major grouping within Christianity. One of the challenges for this month, then, is working to put together books on relevant topics. For this month, one contest is for editors to assemble the basic Wikipedia books for each of the main topics of the extant related projects. When finished, they should their creation of the books at the main Christianity noticeboard, and at the end of the month the project will award barnstars to those who have made a significant efforts in developing this underdeveloped content.

Also this month, we are going to have have a challenge to create and improve some of our more important missing or low-quality articles. As biographies are often a bit easier, this month we are choosing two biographies: Karl Behm, which has yet to be started, and the currently Stub-class article Nerses IV the Gracious. A barnstar will be awarded to any editor who can get these articles up to DYK quality level and ultimately selected for the DYK section of the main page.

Calendar
Thie coming month (mid-August through mid-September) includes feasts dedicated to the honor of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Bartholomew the Apostle, Nativity of Mary, and the Exaltation of the Cross.

Featured content and GA report
Since the last report, William de Chesney (sheriff), Knights of Columbus, and Angelus Silesius were promoted to GA level. Our thanks and congratulations to all those involved.

Wikimedia Foundation report

Wikinews is our sister site for developing news stories. Several events relating to Christianity, like the installation of bishops for instance, do not necessarily merit extensive coverage in wikipedia encyclopedic articles, but can and easily could be covered at greater length in a news article format. Given the number of significant news events that relate to religion, including claims of miracles, assignment of bishops and other religious leaders, church conferences, and other events, this site provides an excellent opportunity to provide in-depth coverage of current events at greater length than wikipedia.

Christian art

Christ Crucified by Diego Velazquez.

Spotlight

One of our newer editors, User:David_FLXD, has recently gone through much of our content related to Methodism and assessed it. We are very grateful for his efforts, and that of all the editors who have had a role in developing that content. We have every reason to believe that this will make it significantly easier for the Methodism work group to create and develop content relevant to Methodism. To help that along, we certainly encourage everyone to do what they can to help David and the other Methodism editors to bring the content relevant to their tradition to the highest possible level of quality.

I believe
... in the Holy Trinity, the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, the Arminian conception of free will through God's prevenient grace, and the regular renewal of the individual's covenant with God. I am a Methodist.

---

Help requests
Please let us know if there are any particular areas, either individual articles or topics, which you believe would benefit from outside help from a variety of other editors. We will try to include such requests in future issues.

Ichthus is the newsletter of Christianity on Wikipedia • It is published by WikiProject Christianity
For submissions contact the Newsroom • To unsubscribe add yourself to the list here
EdwardsBot (talk)

Dear Tiamut,

We are a team of researchers at the University of Oxford and AU Sharjah, researching the experiences of editors of content about the Arab world on Wikipedia. We are interested in your experiences of editing Wikipedia and are organising two events that we think you would be an excellent contributor to.

First, we are hosting an online wiki focus group about contributing to Wikipedia in Arabic and to articles about the Middle East and North Africa. We are interested in what barriers you perceive to exist in Wikipedia, how articles can be made better and generally what can be done to expand and improve Arabic Wikipedia and Wikipedia articles about the Arab world. This discussion will take place on a MediaWiki hosted at our institution and be available in English and Arabic. We will allow users to create their own discussion pages in addition to our discussions.

Second, we are hosting face-to-face workshops in Cairo from 21st-22nd October 2012. If you are interested in this we should be able to pay travel and accommodation costs for up to twenty participants. This workshop will cover similar themes to the online discussion but will allow participants to meet one another and benefit from being together.

We will take care of the organization and planning and all you have to do is show up and be ready to discuss. But if you would like to help shape some of the discussion themes in advance, please let us know. We have booked time in the workshops for Wikipedian-led discussions.

More details can be found by expanding our “Frequently Asked Questions” below.

We would be delighted to welcome you to either (or both) event. Please let us know (wikiproject@oii.ox.ac.uk) if you would like the opportunity to participate and we can send you more details.

Sincerely,

Mark, Bernie, Ilhem, Ali, Ahmed, and Heather

Dr. Mark Graham, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford; Dr. Bernie Hogan, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford; Dr. Ilhem Allagui, Department of Mass Communication, American University of Sharjah; Dr. Ali Frihida, National Engineering School of Tunis; Heather Ford, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford; Ahmed Medhat, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford;

OIIOxford (talk) 11:16, 21 August 2012 (UTC), tidied 10:53, 23 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Tiamut! Are you going?--Fjmustak (talk) 18:56, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The final is upon us! We are down to our final 8. A massive 573 was our lowest qualifying score; this is higher than the 150 points needed last year and the 430 needed in 2010. Even in 2009, when points were acquired for mainspace edit count in addition to audited content, 417 points secured a place. That leaves this year's WikiCup, by one measure at least, our most competitive ever. Our finalists, ordered by round 4 score, are:

1. Grapple X (submissions) once again finishes the round in first place, leading Pool B. Grapple X writes articles about television, and especially The X-Files and Millenium, with good articles making up the bulk of the score.
2. Miyagawa (submissions) led Pool A this round. Fourth-place finalist last year, Miyagawa writes on a variety of topics, and has reached the final primarily off the back of his massive number of did you knows.
3. Ruby2010 (submissions) was second in Pool B. Ruby2010 writes primarily on television and film, and scores primarily from good articles.
4. Casliber (submissions) finished third in Pool B. Casliber is something of a WikiCup veteran, having finished sixth in 2011 and fourth in 2010. Casliber writes on the natural sciences, including ornithology, botany and astronomy. Over half of Casliber's points this round were bonus points from the high-importance articles he has worked on.
5. Cwmhiraeth (submissions) came second in Pool A. Also writing on biology, especially marine biology, Cwmhiraeth received 390 points for one featured article (Bivalvia) and one good article (pelican), topping up with a large number of did you knows.
6. Muboshgu (submissions) was third in Pool A. Muboshgu writes primarily on baseball, and this round saw Muboshgu's first featured article, Derek Jeter, promoted on its fourth attempt at FAC.
7. Dana Boomer (submissions) was fourth in Pool A. She writes on a variety of topics, including horses, but this round also saw the high-importance lettuce reach featured article status.
8. Sasata (submissions) is another WikiCup veteran, having been a finalist in 2009 and 2010. He writes mostly on mycology.

However, we must also say goodbye to the eight who did not make the final, having fallen at the last hurdle: GreatOrangePumpkin (submissions), Ealdgyth (submissions), Calvin999 (submissions), Piotrus (submissions), Toa Nidhiki05 (submissions), 12george1 (submissions), The Bushranger (submissions) and 1111tomica (submissions). We hope to see you all next year.

On the subject of next year, a discussion has been opened here. Come and have your say about the competition, and how you'd like it to run in the future. This brainstorming will go on for some time before more focused discussions/polls are opened. As ever, if you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 00:26, 1 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors; award recipients; contest results Articles: The month's Featured and A-class content Book reviews: Nick-D on the legacy of World War II Op-ed: Bomzibar on German military history

The Military history WikiProject has started its 2012 project coordinator election process, where we will select a team of coordinators to organize the project over the coming year. If you would like to be considered as a candidate, please submit your nomination by 14 September. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact one of the current coordinators on their talk page. This message was delivered here because you are a member of the Military history WikiProject. – Military history coordinators (about the project • what coordinators do) 10:01, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

ICHTHUS

September 2012

Membership report
The parent Christianity WikiProject currently has 344 active members. We would like to welcome our newest members, User:Floating Boat, User:Dewey420, and User:Jpacobb. Thank you all for your interest in this effort. If any members, new or not, wish any assistance, they should feel free to leave a message at the Christianity noticeboard or with me or other individual editors to request it.

From the Editor
Ichthus is one of the ways that the WikiProject Christianity’s Outreach department helps update our members. We have recently added some new sections to the newsletter. Please let us know if there are changes you would like to see in the format, or if there are any particular things you would like to see included. And if you have anything you would personally like to add, by all means let us know. The talk page of the current issue is probably the best place to post such comments.

With that, I wish you all happy reading!

P.S. Please click here to add the new Christianity noticeboard to your watchlist to follow the latest discussions relevant to WikiProject Christianity and subprojects.

By John Carter

Church of the month

by User:Diliff The Chapel of Keble College, Oxford

Contest of the month
We currently have a remarkable lack of Wikipedia:Wikipedia-Books. Right now, Category:Wikipedia books on Christianity contains only 12 books. We certainly could have at least one book on each major grouping within Christianity. One of the challenges for this month, then, is working to put together books on relevant topics. For this month, one contest is for editors to assemble the basic Wikipedia books for each of the main topics of the extant related projects. When finished, they should their creation of the books at the main Christianity noticeboard, and at the end of the month the project will award barnstars to those who have made a significant efforts in developing this underdeveloped content.

Also this month, we are going to have have a challenge to create and improve some of our more important missing or low-quality articles. Last month's challenge articles were Karl Beth and Nerses IV the Gracious. Both articles are currently candidates for the DYK section of the main page. This month's challenge articles are the Stub-class article James Hastings and the not yet started Rudolf Sohm, A barnstar will be awarded to any editor who can get these articles up to DYK quality level and ultimately selected for the DYK section of the main page.

Calendar
Thie coming month (mid-September through mid-October) includes feasts dedicated to the honor of the Martyrs of Korea, Saint Matthew, Vincent de Paul, Michaelmas, Saint Jerome, Theresa of Lisieux, the Feast of the Guardian Angels, Francis of Assisi, Our Lady of the Rosary, and Teresa of Avila.

Featured content and GA report
Since the last report, Albertus Soegijapranata, and Reginald Heber were promoted to FA. Grade I listed churches in Greater Manchester was promoted to Featured List, and Jackie Hudson, Joyce Kilmer, Divine command theory, Bosa of York and Argument from morality were promoted to GA level. DYKs featured this past month include Church of Saint Benoit, Istanbul, All Saints Church, Hollingbourne, Neustädter Kirche, Hannover, St Mary's Church, Kirkby Lonsdale, Albert Ndongmo, If We Are the Body, List of places of worship in Tonbridge and Malling, Kulubnarti church, All Saints Church, Ulcombe, Val-Saint-Lambert Abbey, Igny Abbey, Church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel, Brăila, Places of Worship Registration Act 1855, Collegiate Church of San Gimignano, and St Matthew's Church, Burnley. Our profoundest thanks and congratulations to all those involved!

Wikimedia Foundation report

As some of you may have seen, the Simple English Wikipedia has been experiencing some difficulties lately. This particular entity could be of great value to several individuals who are trying to learn English. As some of you who do speak foreign languages know, one of the most easily available, and, in general, useful learning aids for people is a text they know already, which allows them to focus on the specific words of the new language. Various recorded readings and translations of the Bible are among the best examples of this. Any efforts to try to enhance this vital means of informing a large segment of our readership is more than welcome. People interested in helping develop it are encouraged to leave a note regarding their specific articles of interest at the Christianity noticeboard. It would be wonderful if we could report some significant contributions to this sister site next month. And, of course, if we do have something to report, those involved would receive our greatest thanks.

Christian art

The Guardian Angel by Pietro da Cortona.

Spotlight

WikiProject Calvinism is one of our more important subprojects. It is specifically devoted to developing content relating to the Calvinist tradition, and the primary point for development of content relating to the Pilgrims, Presbyterians, Reformed churches, Congregational church, Reformed Baptists, and Low church. We definitely encourage everyone to do what they can to help this project develop the content relating to this extremely important Christian tradition.

I believe
... that human nature is insufficient for salvation, and the grace of God is required to do so. I believe that God has preordained who will and will not achieve salvation. I believe that Jesus's atonement was sufficient for the purposes for which it was done. I believe that God's grace is of such power that it can overcome any person's resistance. I believe that those whom God has chosen for salvation will, by the undeniable power of God, persevere in God's grace. I am a Calvinist.

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Help requests
Please let us know if there are any particular areas, either individual articles or topics, which you believe would benefit from outside help from a variety of other editors. We will try to include such requests in future issues.

Ichthus is the newsletter of Christianity on Wikipedia • It is published by WikiProject Christianity
For submissions contact the Newsroom • To unsubscribe add yourself to the list here
EdwardsBot (talk)

We're over half way through the final, and so it is less than a month until we know for certain our 2012 WikiCup champion. Grapple X (submissions) currently leads, followed by Sasata (submissions), Cwmhiraeth (submissions) and Casliber (submissions). However, we have no one resembling a breakaway leader, and so the competition is a long way from over. Next month's newsletter will feature a list of our winners (who are not necessarily only the finalists) and keep your eyes open for an article on the WikiCup in a future edition of The Signpost. The leaders are already on a par with last year's winners, but a long way from the huge scores seen in 2010. That said, a repeat of the competition from 2010 seems unlikely.

It is good to see that three-quarters of our finalists have already scored bonus points this round. This shows that, contrary to criticism that the WikiCup has received in the past, the competition does not merely incentivise the writing of trivial articles; instead, our top competitors are still spending their time contributing to high-importance articles, and bringing them to a high standard. This does a great service to the encyclopedia and its readers. Thank you, and good work!

The planning for next year's WikiCup is ongoing. Some straw polls have been opened concerning the scoring, and you can now sign up for next year's competition. As ever, if you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) J Milburn (talk) 20:05, 2 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors; award recipients; contest results Articles: The month's Featured and A-class content Book reviews: AustralianRupert on artillery in South Australia, and Nick-D on Venice's empire Op-ed: Nick-D on the "Kokoda: Beyond the Legend" conference

http://forward.com/articles/163715/legends-of-the-fall/ Cheers. Zero^talk 03:01, 8 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

ICHTHUS

September 2012

Membership report
The parent Christianity WikiProject currently has 347 active members. We would like to welcome our newest members, User:Dplcrnj, User:Danmuz, User:Zigzig20s, and User:Jasonasosa. Thank you all for your interest in this effort. If any members, new or not, wish any assistance, they should feel free to leave a message at the Christianity noticeboard or with me or other individual editors to request it.

From the Editor
Ichthus is one of the ways that the WikiProject Christianity’s Outreach department helps update our members. This newsletter is one of the ways we do try to help people keep up with the project. We would always welcome any input for things to be included in it or additional editors to keep it going. Please let us know if there are changes you would like to see in the format, or if there are any particular things you would like to see included. And if you have anything you would personally like to add, by all means let us know. The talk page of the current issue is probably the best place to post such comments.

With that, I wish you all happy reading!

P.S. Please click here to add the new Christianity noticeboard to your watchlist to follow the latest discussions relevant to WikiProject Christianity and subprojects.

By John Carter

Church of the month

by User:Taxiarchos228, recently promoted to Featured Image St. Paul's Church, Basel

Contest of the month
For the upcoming month, the contest will be to develop content related to the Christmas season, including Advent and other related topics. Please feel free to see and take part in the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Christianity noticeboard#Contest of the month - Advent/Christmas content.

One of last month's challenge articles, Rudolf Sohm, has been substantially developed by User:Jack1956 and User:StAnselm. Our deepest thanks to both of them!!

Calendar
Thie coming month (mid-October through mid-November) includes All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day and major commemorations dedicated to the honor of the Ignatius of Antioch, Luke the Evangelist, Simon the Canaanite, Saint Jude, the dedication of the Lateran Basilica, the beginning of the Nativity Fast, James of Jerusalem, Reformation Day, and others.

Featured content and GA report
Since the last report, Augustinian theodicy by User:ItsZippy was promoted to FA. Grade I listed churches in Merseyside by User:Peter I. Vardy was promoted to Featured List. The images in the Church of the Month and Christian art sections of this newsletter were promoted to Featured Picture status. John Wheelwright by User:Sarnold17, Christmas Party (The Office) by User:Gen. Quon and If We Are the Body by User:Toa Nidhiki05, were promoted to GA level. DYKs featured this past month include Cathedral of Saint Demetrius, Craiova, by User:Biruitorul, Nerses IV the Gracious by User:John Carter, Church of St Candida and Holy Cross by User:BarretB, St Laurence's Church, Morland by User:Peter I. Vardy, St Mary's Church, Longfleet by User:Bermicourt, Chor von St. Bonifatius by User:Gerda Arendt, St Andrew's Church, Penrith by User:Peter I. Vardy, Holy Rosary Cathedral (Vancouver) by User:Bloom6132, Sacred Heart Cathedral (Kamloops) by User:Bloom6132, St Columba's Church, Warcop by User:Peter I. Vardy, St Oswald's Church, Ravenstonedale by User:Peter I. Vardy, and W. E. Biederwolf by User:John Foxe. Our profoundest thanks and congratulations to all those involved!

Christian art

Portrait of John Henry Newman by Sir John Everett Millais. This image was promoted this past month to FM by the work of User:Spongie555. Thank you, Spongie!

Spotlight

WikiProject Holidays/Christmas task force is the group whose purpose is to help develop the content related to the Christmas season, including Advent, New Year's, and related holidays. As many of us know, in several parts of the world, including the United States, the Christmas season is not only the time of one of the greatest holidays of the Christian liturgical year, but it is also the "make or break" time for many retailers, whose profitability for the year often depends on their success in this time of the giving of sometimes significantly expensive gifts. In other parts of the world, the winter solstice period and sometimes specifically Christmas itself means something that might surprise many Christians, like the Christmas in Japan, where Christmas is one of the times hotels receive the greatest number of, often unmarried, couples staying there for the night. The solstice season is also significant to several other religions. Many of these days are also legal holidays in several places. In Belarus, for instance, both the Western and Eastern Christmas commemorations are legal holidays. We would certainly welcome the members of this project to donate some of their time and talents in the upcoming months to improving this significant content.

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Help requests
Please let us know if there are any particular areas, either individual articles or topics, which you believe would benefit from outside help from a variety of other editors. We will try to include such requests in future issues.

Ichthus is the newsletter of Christianity on Wikipedia • It is published by WikiProject Christianity
For submissions contact the Newsroom • To unsubscribe add yourself to the list here
EdwardsBot (talk)

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors; milestone for the Fortifications task force; contest results Articles: The month's new Featured and A-class content Book reviews: Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/October 2012/Hawkeye7 on mission command Op-ed: The ed17 on how The Bugle could be improved

The 2012 WikiCup has come to a close; congratulations to Cwmhiraeth (submissions), our 2012 champion! Cwmhiraeth joins our exclusive club of previous winners: Dreamafter (2007), jj137 (2008), Durova (2009), Sturmvogel 66 (2010) and Hurricanehink (2011). Our final standings were as follows:

1. Cwmhiraeth (submissions)
2. Sasata (submissions)
3. Grapple X (submissions)
4. Casliber (submissions)
5. Muboshgu (submissions)
6. Miyagawa (submissions)
7. Ruby2010 (submissions)
8. Dana Boomer (submissions)

Prizes for first, second, third and fourth will be awarded, as will prizes for all those who reached the final eight. Every participant who scored in the competition will receive a ribbon of participation. In addition to the prizes based on placement, the following special prizes will be awarded based on high performance in particular areas of content creation. So that the finalists do not have an undue advantage, the prize is awarded to the competitor who scored the highest in any particular field in a single round.

• The featured article award goes to Grapple X (submissions), for four featured articles in the final round.
• The good article award also goes to Grapple X (submissions), for 19 good articles in the second round.
• The list award goes to Muboshgu (submissions), for three featured lists in the final round.
• The topic award goes to Grapple X (submissions), for three good topics (with around 40 articles) in round 4.
• The did you know award goes to Cwmhiraeth (submissions), for well over 100 DYKs in the final round.
• The news award goes to ThaddeusB (submissions), for 10 in the news items in round 3.
• The picture award goes to Grandiose (submissions), for two featured pictures in round 2.
• The reviewer award goes to both Ruby2010 (submissions) (14 reviews in round 1) and Grandiose (submissions) (14 reviews in round 3).
• Finally, for achieving an incredible bonus point total in the final round, and for bringing the top-importance article frog to featured status, a biostar has been awarded to Cwmhiraeth (submissions).

Awards will be handed out in the coming days; please bear with us! This year's competition also saw fantastic contributions in all rounds, from newer Wikipedians contributing their first good or featured articles, right up to highly experienced Wikipedians chasing high scores and contributing to topics outside of their usual comfort zones. It would be impossible to name all of the participants who have achieved things to be proud of, but well done to all of you, and thanks! Wikipedia has certainly benefited from the work of this year's WikiCup participants.

Next year's WikiCup will begin in January. Currently, discussions and polls are open, and all contributions are welcome. You can also sign up for next year's competition. There will be no further newsletters this year, although brief notes may be sent out in December to remind everyone about the upcoming competition. It's been a pleasure to work with you all, and we hope to see you all in January! J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 00:46, 1 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

ICHTHUS

November 2012

Membership report
The parent Christianity WikiProject currently has 349 active members. We would like to welcome our newest members, User:Hayayika and User:Pikachu Bros.. Thank you all for your interest in this effort. If any members, new or not, wish any assistance, they should feel free to leave a message at the Christianity noticeboard or with me or other individual editors to request it.

From the Editor
Ichthus is one of the ways that the WikiProject Christianity’s Outreach department helps update our members. This newsletter is one of the ways we do try to help people keep up with the project. We would always welcome any input for things to be included in it or additional editors to keep it going. Please let us know if there are changes you would like to see in the format, or if there are any particular things you would like to see included. And if you have anything you would personally like to add, by all means let us know. The talk page of the current issue is probably the best place to post such comments.

With that, I wish you all happy reading!

P.S. Please click here to add the new Christianity noticeboard to your watchlist to follow the latest discussions relevant to WikiProject Christianity and subprojects.

By John Carter

Church of the month

Saint-Augustin, Paris by User:Saffron Blaze

Recently promoted to Featured Image. Great work!

Contest of the month
For the upcoming month, the contest will continue with the Christmas theme, including Advent and other related topics. Please feel free to see and take part in discussion at the Christianity noticeboard.

Calendar
This coming month (mid-November through mid-December) includes the Advent season. Other major feasts are those of Margaret of Scotland, Matthew the Evangelist, Hilda of Whitby, Elizabeth of Hungary, Edmund the Martyr, the Presentation of Mary, Saint Cecilia, Clement of Rome, Catherine of Alexandria, Andrew the Apostle, Francis Xavier, Saint Barbara, John Damascene, Nicholas of Myra, Saint Ambrose of Milan, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Lucy of Syracuse, and others.

Featured content and GA report
Since the last report, Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych by, among others, User:Truthkeeper88, User:Ceoil, and User:Kafka Liz and Mitt Romney by User:Wasted Time R were promoted to FA. List of 2000s Christian Songs number ones by User:Toa Nidhiki05 was promoted to Featured List. The two images in the Church of the Month and Christian art sections of this newsletter were promoted to Featured Picture status, as were these two images of Michelangelo's Pieta and of Giovanni Bellini's Saint Francis in the Desert . Derek Webb by User: Pepsi2786 and others, and Scipione Piattoli by User:Piotrus were promoted to GA level. DYKs featured this past month include Archdiocese of Râmnic, by User:Biruitorul, Diocese of Caransebeş by User:Biruitorul, Wythburn Church by User:Peter I. Vardy, St. Gumbertus, Ansbach by User:Gerda Arendt, User:Dr. Blofeld, and User:Nvvchar collectively, St. Johannis, Ansbach by User:Gerda Arendt, User:Dr. Blofeld, and User:Nvvchar collectively, Nikollë Bojaxhiu by User:ZjarriRrethues, All Saints Church, Lydd by User:Dr. Blofeld, User:Rosiestep, User:Gilderien, and User:Ipigott collectively, St Mary's Church, Acton Burnell by User:Peter I. Vardy, St Eata's Church, Atcham by User:Peter I. Vardy, Nativity of St. John the Baptist Church, Piatra Neamț by User:Biruitorul, Anna Schäffer by User:Shii, List of Archbishops of Vancouver by User: Bloom6132, James Francis Carney by User:Bloom6132, St Luke's Church, Chelsea by User:PKM and User:Johnbod, Gregory Orologas by User:Alexikoua, Ambrosios Pleianthidis by User:Alexikoua, and St Giles' Church, Barrow, by User:Peter I. Vardy. Our profoundest thanks and congratulations to all those involved!

Christian art

Three scenes of the legend of the Miraculous Sacrament, in which communion wafers were reported to bleed after being stabbed, in the St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral, Brussels by Jean-Baptiste Capronnier. This image was promoted this past month to FM by the work of User:Alvesgaspar. Thank you, Alvesgaspar!

Spotlight

The core topics work group is the group whose specific purpose is to help identify and develop those articles which are of greatest importance to an overall understanding of the broad subject of Christianity, based on what is included in the core topics list. These articles include some of specific churches and individuals, history, philosophical and theological matters, and more. We have had some recent discussion regarding which articles should be included in this list, and it probably makes sense to revisit the selections, and try to figure out how best to work to make them high quality articles. Discussion is beginning at WT:X regarding these matters, and all input is welcome.

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Help requests
Please let us know if there are any particular areas, either individual articles or topics, which you believe would benefit from outside help from a variety of other editors. We will try to include such requests in future issues.

Ichthus is the newsletter of Christianity on Wikipedia • It is published by WikiProject Christianity
For submissions contact the Newsroom • To unsubscribe add yourself to the list here
EdwardsBot (talk)

There's a discussion about what the Palestinian Authority is at Talk:Palestinian_National_Authority#Organization_or_Place.3F and Talk:Palestinian_National_Authority#Palestinian_Authority_-_an_organization_.28government.29_or_a_geopolitical_entity.3F. I'm telling you this because you seamed to express on opinion on that at Talk:Palestinian_National_Authority#Infobox. Emmette Hernandez Coleman (talk) 04:17, 22 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I work for a team of researchers from the University of Oxford, who are holding a workshop in Amman on the 26th and 27th January 2013. Travel, accommodation and food will all be paid for. We would like to invite you as someone who contributes to topics in the Middle East, as the research project is about representation of the region on Wikipedia. There was a workshop held in October 2012 in Cairo for the same project. You can see the facebook group for this workshop here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/menawiki/. Please let me know if you would be interested in attending by emailing me at wikiproject@oii.ox.ac.uk. Many thanks, Clarence (Project manager) OIIOxford (talk) 09:05, 26 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors; awards and honours; contest results Articles: The month's new Featured and A-Class content Book reviews: Sturmvogel_66, AustralianRupert, and Nick-D look at ships, soldiers, and railways Op-ed: Nick-D on navigating the FA and A-Class review processes

Dearest Tiamut, you are missed around here! I assume you have been very occupied in RL, though. I just emailed you, if you have time, Cheers, Huldra (talk) 18:45, 10 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

ICHTHUS

December 2012

Membership report
The parent Christianity WikiProject currently has 350 active members. We would like to welcome our newest member, User:Harishrawat11. Thank you all for your interest in this effort. We would be able to achieve nothing here without the input of all of you. If any members, new or not, wish any assistance, they should feel free to leave a message at the Christianity noticeboard or with me or other individual editors to request it.

From the Editor
Ichthus is one of the ways that the WikiProject Christianity’s Outreach department helps update our members. This newsletter is one of the ways we do try to help people keep up with the project. We would always welcome any input for things to be included in it or additional editors to keep it going. Please let us know if there are changes you would like to see in the format, or if there are any particular things you would like to see included. And if you have anything you would personally like to add, by all means let us know. The talk page of the current issue is probably the best place to post such comments.

With that, I wish you all happy reading!

P.S. Please click here to add the new Christianity noticeboard to your watchlist to follow the latest discussions relevant to WikiProject Christianity and subprojects.

By John Carter

Church of the month

This image of The Baptistry of Saint John in Pisa by User:NotFromUtrecht

was recently promoted to Featured Image. Thank you and congratulations for the great image!

Contest of the month
As I imagine many of our editors will be editing at a greatly reduced level for the next few weeks, what with the Christmas and New Year's holidays coming, there is no specific content-related contest this month. The contest, if anything, is to make the most of the season, in whatever way, if any, you deem appropriate.

Calendar
This coming month (mid-December through mid-January) includes the Advent season, and one of the two greatest holidays of the Christian year, Christmas. Other major feasts in the next month include those of the Feast of the Epiphany, Baptism of the Lord, Saint Stephen, Thomas the Apostle, Holy Innocents, John the Evangelist, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great, Saint Genevieve, Elizabeth Ann Seton, and Saint Sava.

Featured content and GA report
Since the last report, Anne Hutchinson nominated by User:Sarnold17 was promoted to FA. Grade I listed churches in Lancashire by User:Peter I. Vardy was promoted to Featured List. The image in the Church of the Month and Christian art sections of this newsletter were promoted to Featured Picture status. Come to the Well by User:Toa Nidhiki05 and others, and Dwight Christmas by User:Gen. Quon and others were promoted to GA level. DYKs featured this past month include King's Chapel, Gibraltar, by User:Prioryman, Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Albany, New York) by User:Daniel Case, Tingsted Church by User:Ipigott and User:Rosiestep, St. Mary's Church (Albany, New York) by User:Daniel Case, Stubbekøbing Church by User:Ipigott and User:Rosiestep, Notre Dame Cathedral (Phnom Penh) by User:Bloom6132, and St. James' Church, Cardington by User:Peter I. Vardy. Our profoundest thanks and congratulations to all those involved!

Christian art

The nave of the Parish Church of Urtijëi. This image was created by User:Moroderen. Thank you, Moroderen!

Spotlight

In the spirit of Christmas, the spotlight for the coming month might actually best be on those people closest to you. We know that a lot of our editors here are associated in some way or another with schools, and many if not most of them are going on rather extended breaks for the holidays. This can give some of us a chance to meet up with old friends, spend time with our families and those close to us, and, in a sense, "recharge" for the new year. So, for all of you who are in some way part of that group, we wish you the very best of holidays. We hope you all return to editing after the holidays with your spirits lifted and with your energies at peak level. There are some small matters in development here as well, and it is our hope that some of them will be ready come the next newsletter. But, until then, we wish you all the happiest and holiest (if appropriate) holidays.

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Help requests
Please let us know if there are any particular areas, either individual articles or topics, which you believe would benefit from outside help from a variety of other editors. We will try to include such requests in future issues.

Ichthus is the newsletter of Christianity on Wikipedia • It is published by WikiProject Christianity
For submissions contact the Newsroom • To unsubscribe add yourself to the list here
EdwardsBot (talk)

• EdwardsBot (talk) 02:28, 20 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors; awards and honours; contest results Articles: The month's new Featured and A-Class content Book reviews: Simon Harley on British battleships and Nick-D on the French Resistance Interview: Five editors discuss some less-represented areas of military history Op-ed: Ian Rose looks back on 2012

Kil seneh w enti salmeh, Tiamut. Yazan (talk) 16:11, 26 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

كل عام وإنتي بخير, nableezy - 17:07, 26 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Seasons greetings to you and your family, and best wishes for a prosperous and happy New Year.
Nishidani (talk) 20:54, 26 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi there; you're receiving this message because you have previously shown interest in the WikiCup. This is just to remind you that the 2013 WikiCup will be starting on 1 January, and that signups will remain open throughout January. Old and new Wikipedians and WikiCup participants are warmly invited to take part in this year's competition. (Though, as a note to the more experienced participants, there have been a few small rules changes in the last few months.) If you have already signed up, let this be a reminder; you will receive a message with your submissions' page soon. Please direct any questions to the WikiCup talk page. Thanks! J Milburn 19:16, 30 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

ICHTHUS

January 2013

Membership report
The parent Christianity WikiProject currently has 354 active members. We would like to welcome our newest members, Alliereborn, Iselilja, Peterkp, and Sosthenes12. Thank you all for your interest in this effort. We would be able to achieve nothing here without the input of all of you. If any members, new or not, wish any assistance, they should feel free to leave a message at the Christianity noticeboard or with me or other individual editors to request it.

From the Editor
Ichthus is one of the ways that the WikiProject Christianity’s Outreach department helps update our members. This newsletter is one of the ways we do try to help people keep up with the project. We would always welcome any input for things to be included in it or additional editors to keep it going. Please let us know if there are changes you would like to see in the format, or if there are any particular things you would like to see included. And if you have anything you would personally like to add, by all means let us know. The talk page of the current issue is probably the best place to post such comments.

With that, I wish you all happy reading!

P.S. Please click here to add the new Christianity noticeboard to your watchlist to follow the latest discussions relevant to WikiProject Christianity and subprojects.

By John Carter

Church of the month

This image of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Tallinn, Estonia by User:Poco a poco

was recently promoted to Featured Image. Thank you and congratulations for the great image!

Contest of the month
No particular contest this month. I am however getting rather close to getting together a more or less complete set of articles relating to different areas of Christianity which can be found in recent reference sources on the broad topic of Christianity, and about various subtopics, which I hope to have finished in the next few weeks. I wonder what the rest of you might think of, maybe, making the contests of future months be basically directed at filling in the gaps of our existing coverage of topics, like those topics given significant coverage in specialized reference works which we don't yet have content on, and giving the thanks, and rewards, whatever they might be, to those who create and develop such content. I am starting a discussion at Wikipedia talk:Christianity noticeboard#Future contests, and would very much welcome any input from interested parties in how to set it up, determine winners including how many winners, etc.

By John Carter

Featured content and GA report
Since the last report, the image in the "Church of the Month" section of this newsletter was promoted to Featured Image status.

Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes, BWV 40 by Gerda Arendt and others, Teuruarii IV by Lemurbaby, KAVEBEAR and others, and Peace on Earth (Casting Crowns album) by Toa Nidhiki05 and others, were all promoted to GA status.

Also this past month, the DYKs on the main page included St James' Church, Cardington by Peter I. Vardy, Bishop's Palace, Kraków by Poeticbent, Kippinge Church by Ipigott and Rosiestep, Trinitatis Church, also by Ipigott and Rosiestep, Steindamm Church by Olessi, St Laurence's Church, Church Stretton by Peter I. Vardy, Monastery of the Holy Trinity, Meteora, by Peter I. Vardy, Sonrise Church, by Aboutmovies, St. Peter's Episcopal Church (Albany, New York), by Daniel Case, All Saints Church, Claverley, by Peter I. Vardy, and Church of the Holy Virgin Mary of Lourdes, by Poeticbent. Our profoundest thanks and congratulations to all those involved!

Christian art

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
This image was created by User:Dcoetzee. Thank you, Dcoetzee!

Spotlight

The Spotlight this month turns to the the Syriac Christianity work group. The scope of this project includes the various traditions of Syriac Christianity, including the Assyrian Church of the East, Ancient Church of the East, Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox Church, Chaldean Catholic Church, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Syriac Catholic Church, Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, and Saint Thomas Christians. One of these groups, the Assyrian Church of the East, is considered by scholars to have probably been, for several hundred years, the largest Christian grouping in the planet, with its numerous members in Central Asia and Eastern Asia. Numerous texts, traditions, and practices unique to these groups exist, including the Jesus Sutras and the belief of the Assyrian Church of the East that the bread they use in the preparation of their Eucharist uses the same basic yeast as that used in the bread of the Last Supper itself. Sadly, given the linguistic barriers to much of the content relative to these groups, and the comparative lack of notoriety they have in the Western world, much of this content does receive less attenion, and thus less development, than much other content. There is a large amount of extremely valuable historical material here still waiting to be adequately developed by editors with an interest in the topic, and I personally very much hope that we can draw more attention to these topics, and the content related to them.

By John Carter

Calendar
This coming month (mid-January through mid-February) includes The Presentation of Christ in the Temple or Candlemas and the Conversion of Paul. Other major feasts in the next month include those of Saint Agnes, Saint Francis de Sales, Saints Timothy and Titus, Thomas Aquinas, John Bosco, Saint Agatha, Paul Miki, [{Saint Scholastica]], and Saint Anskar.

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Help requests
Please let us know if there are any particular areas, either individual articles or topics, which you believe would benefit from outside help from a variety of other editors. We will try to include such requests in future issues.

Ichthus is the newsletter of Christianity on Wikipedia • It is published by WikiProject Christianity
For submissions contact the Newsroom • To unsubscribe add yourself to the list here
EdwardsBot (talk)

• EdwardsBot (talk) 03:38, 21 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors; awards and honours; contest results Articles: The month's new Featured and A-Class content Book reviews: Nick-D looks at Mongol naval power Op-ed: Crisco 1492 on war films

Signups are now closed; we have our final 127 contestants for this year's competition. 64 contestants will make it to the next round at the end of February, but we're already seeing strong scoring compared to previous years. Sturmvogel_66 (submissions) currently leads, with 358 points. At this stage in 2012, the leader ( Grapple X (submissions)) had 342 points, while in 2011, the leader had 228 points. We also have a large number of scorers when compared with this stage in previous years. 12george1 (submissions) was the first competitor to score this year, as he was last year, with a detailed good article review. Some other firsts:

• 12george1 (submissions) was also the first to score for an article, with the good article Hurricane Gordon (2000). Again, this is a repeat of last year!
• Buggie111 (submissions) was the first to score for a did you know, with Marquis Flowers.
• Spencer (submissions) was the first to score for an in the news, with 2013 Houphouët-Boigny stampede.
• Status (submissions) was the first to score for a featured list, with list of Billboard Social 50 number-one artists.
• Adam Cuerden (submissions) was the first to score for a featured picture, with File:Thure de Thulstrup - L. Prang and Co. - Battle of Gettysburg - Restoration by Adam Cuerden.jpg.

Featured articles, portals and topics, as well as good topics, are yet to feature in the competition.

This year, the bonus points system has been reworked, with bonus points on offer for old articles prepared for did you know, and "multiplier" points reworked to become more linear. For details, please see Wikipedia:WikiCup/Scoring. There have been some teething problems as the bot has worked its way around the new system, but issues should mostly be ironed out- please report any problems to the WikiCup talk page. Here are some participants worthy of note with regards to the bonus points:

• Ed! (submissions) was the first to score bonus points, with Portland-class cruiser, a good article.
• Hawkeye7 (submissions) has the highest overall bonus points, as well as the highest scoring article, thanks to his work on Enrico Fermi, now a good article. The biography of such a significant figure to the history of science warrants nearly five times the normal score.
• HueSatLum (submissions) claimed bonus points for René Vautier and Nicolas de Fer, articles that did not exist on the English Wikipedia at the start of the year; a first for the WikiCup. The articles were eligible for bonus points because of fact they were both covered on a number of other Wikipedias.

Also, a quick mention of The C of E (submissions), who may well have already written the oddest article of the WikiCup this year: did you know that the Fucking mayor objected to Fucking Hell on the grounds that there was no Fucking brewery? The gauntlet has been thrown down; can anyone beat it?

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 00:27, 1 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Tiamut, I hope things are going well with you and that your sudden disappearance from Wikipedia is only temporary, and that you will be back to do what you had done so wonderfully. Take care my friend. --Fjmustak (talk) 04:32, 2 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors; awards and honours; contest results Articles: Last month's new Featured and A-Class content Book reviews: Nick-D looks at US Army leadership since World War II

Round 1 is now over. The top 64 scorers have progressed to round 2, where they have been randomly split into eight pools of eight. At the end of April, the top two from each pool, as well as the 16 highest scorers from those remaining, will progress to round 3. Commiserations to those eliminated; if you're interested in still being involved in the WikiCup, able and willing reviewers will always be needed, and if you're interested in getting involved with other collaborative projects, take a look at the WikiWomen's Month discussed below.

Round 1 saw 21 competitors with over 100 points, which is fantastic; that suggests that this year's competition is going to be highly competative. Our lower scores indicate this, too: A score of 19 was required to reach round 2, which was significantly higher than the 11 points required in 2012 and 8 points required in 2011. The score needed to reach round 3 will be higher, and may depend on pool groupings. In 2011, 41 points secured a round 3 place, while in 2012, 65 was needed. Our top three scorers in round 1 were:

1. Sturmvogel_66 (submissions), primarily for an array of warship GAs.
2. Miyagawa (submissions), primarily for an array of did you knows and good articles, some of which were awarded bonus points.
3. Casliber (submissions), due in no small part to Canis Minor, a featured article awarded a total of 340 points. A joint submission with Keilana (submissions), this is the highest scoring single article yet submitted in this year's competition.

Other contributors of note include:

• Sven Manguard (submissions), whose Portal:Massachusetts is the first featured portal this year. The featured portal process is one of the less well-known featured processes, and featured portals have traditionally had little impact on WikiCup scores.
• Sasata (submissions), whose Mycena aurantiomarginata was the first featured article this year.
• Muboshgu (submissions) and Wizardman (submissions), who both claimed points for articles in the Major League Baseball tie-breakers topic, the first topic points in the competition.
• Toa Nidhiki05 (submissions), who claimed for the first full good topic with the Casting Crowns studio albums topic.

Featured topics have still played no part in this year's competition, but once again, a curious contribution has been offered by The C of E (submissions): did you know that there is a Shit Brook in Shropshire? With April Fools' Day during the next round, there will probably be a good chance of more unusual articles...

March sees the WikiWomen's History Month, a series of collaborative efforts to aid the women's history WikiProject to coincide with Women's History Month and International Women's Day. A number of WikiCup participants have already started to take part. The project has a to-do list of articles needing work on the topic of women's history. Those interested in helping out with the project can find articles in need of attention there, or, alternatively, add articles to the list. Those interested in collaborating on articles on women's history are also welcome to use the WikiCup talk page to find others willing to lend a helping hand. Another collaboration currently running is an an effort from WikiCup participants to coordinate a number of Easter-themed did you know articles. Contributions are welcome!

A few final administrative issues. From now on, submission pages will need only a link to the article and a link to the nomination page, or, in the case of good article reviews, a link to the review only. See your submissions' page for details. This will hopefully make updating submission pages a little less tedious. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) J Milburn (talk) 11:31, 1 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors; awards and honours; contest results Articles: Last month's new Featured and A-Class content Book reviews: Nick-D looks at refugees during the Battle of France Interview: Editors discuss writing articles about the former Yugoslavia Op-ed: Prioryman on German V-weapon sites and the historian's responsibility

ICHTHUS

April 2013

Membership report
The parent Christianity WikiProject currently has 357 active members. We would like to welcome our newest members, Thomas Cranmer, Mr.Oglesby, and Sneha Priscilla. Thank you all for your interest in this effort. We would be able to achieve nothing here without the input of all of you. If any members, new or not, wish any assistance, they should feel free to leave a message at the Christianity noticeboard or with me or other individual editors to request it.

From the Editor

We apologise for the hiatus in the publication of this newsletter due to unforseen circumstances leading to the wikibreak of John Carter, and so I have taken over as acting editor, and have taken this opportunity to move the publication date to the start of each month as planned, to better reflect on the previous month and look ahead to the next. This issue covers the period of time from mid-January to the end of March.

Since the last issue we have seen the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the election of Pope Francis. This has received much coverage both in the world media and on Wikipedia. While there is still much work to do, several quality articles have been written and the editors involved are thanked for their efforts.

This month we look ahead to Easter and the celebration of God's love for mankind through the crucifixion and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ. With that, I wish you all happy reading!

P.S. Please click here to add the new Christianity noticeboard to your watchlist to follow the latest discussions relevant to WikiProject Christianity and subprojects.

By Gilderien

Church of the month

This image of the Church of Saint Ildefonso, Portugal by Poco a poco was recently promoted to Featured Image. Thank you and congratulations for the great image!

Contest of the month
No particular contest this month. I am however getting rather close to getting together a more or less complete set of articles relating to different areas of Christianity which can be found in recent reference sources on the broad topic of Christianity, and about various subtopics, which I hope to have finished in the next few weeks. I wonder what the rest of you might think of, maybe, making the contests of future months be basically directed at filling in the gaps of our existing coverage of topics, like those topics given significant coverage in specialized reference works which we don't yet have content on, and giving the thanks, and rewards, whatever they might be, to those who create and develop such content. I am starting a discussion at Wikipedia talk:Christianity noticeboard#Future contests, and would very much welcome any input from interested parties in how to set it up, determine winners including how many winners, etc.

By John Carter

Featured content and GA report
Since the last report;

Grade I listed churches in Cumbria was promoted to Featured List status, thanks to Peter I. Vardy, and the image above of the Church of Saint Ildefonso was promoted to featured picture status.

Martin Luther King, Jr., by Khazar2, was promoted to GA status, as well Third Epistle of John by Cerebellum.

Also these past months, the DYKs on the main page included St Mary's Church, Cleobury Mortimer by Peter I. Vardy; Marion Irvine by Giants2008; Margaret McKenna by Guerillero; Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity by Epeefleche; St Edith's Church, Eaton-under-Heywood by Peter I. Vardy; Vester Egesborg Church by Ipigott, Rosiestep, Nvvchar, and Dr. Blofeld; Undløse Church by Ipigott, Rosiestep, Nvvchar, and Dr. Blofeld; St Martin's Church, Næstved by Ipigott, Rosiestep, Nvvchar, and Dr. Blofeld; St. Peter, Syburg by Gerda Arendt and Dr. Blofeld; Østre Porsgrunn Church by Strachkvas; Church of Our Saviour (Mechanicsburg, Ohio) by Nyttend; Dami Mission by Freikorp; Mechanicsburg Baptist Church by Nyttend; Acheiropoietos Monastery, by Proudbolsahye; T. Lawrason Riggs, by Gareth E Kegg; McColley's Chapel, by Mangoe; Oświęcim Chapel, by BurgererSF; Second Baptist Church (Mechanicsburg, Ohio), by Nyttend; Church of the Holy Ghost, Tallinn, by Yakikaki; Old Stone Congregational Church, by Orladyl Heath Chapel, by Peter I. Vardy; St. Joseph's Church, Beijing, by Bloom6132; Church of St Bartholomew, Yeovilton, by Rodw; and St. Michael's Catholic Church (Mechanicsburg, Ohio) also by Nyttend. Our profoundest thanks and congratulations to all those involved!

Christian art

Complete recording

Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe, BWV 22, a cantata by the German composer J.S. Bach, was promoted to GA this month and was written by Gerda Arendt. Many thanks for her continuing work in the area of early 18th Century Church music.

Spotlight

The Spotlight this month turns to the the Jesus work group. The scope of this project includes the life and teachings of the central figure of Christianity, Jesus Christ and aims to write about them in a non-denominational encylopædic style. Top-priority articles include Jesus, Christ, Resurrection of Jesus, and Holy Grail, whereas High-priority articles include Aramaic Language, a former FA, as well as Sermon on the Mount, Lamb of God, and Passion (Christianity). The workgroup has also published two books, covering Christ's final days and the Parables of Jesus. The workgroup has two GAs, Nativity scene, and Jesus in Islam, but unfortunately the flagship article, Jesus was delisted in 2009. It is also responsible for three WP:1.0 articles, and the WikiWork of the project is 4.56, which indicates the "average" article is between Start and C class.

By Gilderien

Calendar
This coming month (end-March through end-April) includes Easter Sunday in Western Christianity and both Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday for the Eastern Orthodox Church. Other major feasts in the next month include those of Saint George, Saint Mark the Evangelist, Saint Stanislaus, James, son of Zebedee, and Benedict the Moor.

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Help requests
Please let us know if there are any particular areas, either individual articles or topics, which you believe would benefit from outside help from a variety of other editors. We will try to include such requests in future issues.

Ichthus is the newsletter of Christianity on Wikipedia • It is published by WikiProject Christianity
For submissions contact the Newsroom • To unsubscribe add yourself to the list here
EdwardsBot (talk) 12:21, 29 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

We are halfway through round two. Pool A sees the strongest competition, with five out of eight of its competitors scoring over 100, and Pool H is lagging, with half of its competitors yet to score. WikiCup veterans lead overall; Pool A's Sturmvogel_66 (submissions) (2010's winner) leads overall, with poolmate Miyagawa (submissions) (a finalist in 2011 and 2012) not far behind. Pool F's Casliber (submissions) (a finalist in 2010, 2011 and 2012) is in third. The top two scorers in each pool, as well as the next highest 16 scorers overall, will progress to round three at the end of April.

Today has seen a number of Easter-themed did you knows from WikiCup participants, and March has seen collaboration from contestants with WikiWomen's History Month. It's great to see the WikiCup being used as a locus of collaboration; if you know of any collaborative efforts going on, or want to start anything up, please feel free to use the WikiCup talk page to help find interested editors. As well as fostering collaboration, we're also seeing the Cup encouraging the improvement of high-importance articles through the bonus point system. Highlights from the last month include GAs on physicist Niels Bohr ( Hawkeye7 (submissions)), on the European hare ( Cwmhiraeth (submissions)), on the constellation Circinus ( Keilana (submissions) and Casliber (submissions)) and on the Third Epistle of John ( Cerebellum (submissions)). All of these subjects were covered on at least 50 Wikipedias at the beginning of the year and, subsequently, each contribution was awarded at least three times as many points as normal.

Wikipedians who enjoy friendly competition may be interested in participating in April's wikification drive. While wikifying an article is typically not considered "significant work" such that it can be claimed for WikiCup points, such gnomish work is often invaluable in keeping articles in shape, and is typically very helpful for new writers who may not be familiar with formatting norms.

A quick reminder: now, submission pages will need only a link to the article and a link to the nomination page, or, in the case of good article reviews, a link to the review only. See your submissions' page for details. This will hopefully make updating submission pages a little less tedious. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) J Milburn (talk) 22:21, 31 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors; awards and honours; contest results Articles: Last month's new Featured and A-Class content Book reviews: Sturmvogel 66 and Hawkeye7 look at aspects of the Pacific War Op-ed: ErrantX considers the rabbit hole of research

ICHTHUS

May 2013

Membership report
The parent Christianity WikiProject currently has 363 active members. We would like to welcome our newest members, Pleonic, MJWilliams1998, Iloilo Wanderer, Jkadavoor, Sir Ian and McBenjamin. Thank you all for your interest in this effort. We would be able to achieve nothing here without the input of all of you. If any members, new or not, wish any assistance, they should feel free to leave a message at the Christianity noticeboard or with me or other individual editors to request it.

From the Editor

This month we hear the news that the Bible is to be made into a film after outstanding success of a biblical miniseries on the History Channel, and we have seen the release of Iraqi Pastor Ali Hamzah from his confinement in Iraq.

After last month's spotlight on the Jesus work group, the flagship article, Jesus, was nominated for Good Article status after much work from FutureTrillionaire and History2007, and provisionally passed by the reviewer, although they have requested a second opinion. Our many thanks for the hard work that has gone into restoring this article to a quality piece of work.

This month the second largest denomination of Christianity, the Eastern Orthodox Church, celebrates Easter and the death and resurrection of the Son of God Jesus Christ.

P.S. Please click here to add the new Christianity noticeboard to your watchlist to follow the latest discussions relevant to WikiProject Christianity and subprojects.

By Gilderien

Church of the month

Wells Cathedral was this month promoted to GA status. Rodw has appealed for any help project members can give to improve this article for a FA nomination.

Contest of the month
No particular contest this month. I am however getting rather close to getting together a more or less complete set of articles relating to different areas of Christianity which can be found in recent reference sources on the broad topic of Christianity, and about various subtopics, which I hope to have finished in the next few weeks. I wonder what the rest of you might think of, maybe, making the contests of future months be basically directed at filling in the gaps of our existing coverage of topics, like those topics given significant coverage in specialized reference works which we don't yet have content on, and giving the thanks, and rewards, whatever they might be, to those who create and develop such content. By John Carter

Featured content and GA report
Since the last report;

Featured report; Madonna in the Church, by Ceoil, Truthkeeper88, and Johnbod was promoted to Featured Article status. Crucifixion and Last Judgement was promoted to featured picture status, after nomination by Crisco 1492.

Wells Cathedral, by Rodw, Robert of Ghent, by User:Ealdgyth, Christianity in Medieval Scotland, by Sabrebd, and Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, also by Sabrebd were promoted to GA status.

Also these past months, the DYKs on the main page included Lectionary 311, by Leszek Jańczuk; Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn, by Gerda Arendt; Whalsay Parish Church, by Ipigott, Rosiestep, Nvvchar, Dr. Blofeld; Interpretatio Christiana, by Altenmann; First Congregational Church, Salt Lake City, by Orlady; Church of King Charles the Martyr, Royal Tunbridge Wells, by The C of E; First Church in Albany (Reformed), by Daniel Case; Pope Anastasius II, by AbstractIllusions; Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Palma, by Dr. Blofeld, Ipigott, Rosiestep; Colan Church, by Rosiestep, Nvvchar, Ipigott; Notre Dame Cathedral, Papeete, Bloom6132, Church of St. Wenceslaus (New Prague, Minnesota), by Elkman; St. Joseph Catholic Church (San Antonio, Texas), by Gilliam; Doubting Thomas, by Johnbod; Robert of Ghent, by Ealdgyth; and Holy Trinity Church, Holdgate, by Peter I. Vardy. Our profoundest thanks and congratulations to all those involved!

Christian art

This depiction of the Crucifixion and Last Judgement was painted by Dutch artist Jan van Eyck and promoted to Featured Picture this month.

Spotlight

SPOTLIGHT

This month, we turn our attention to the Encyclopedic articles sub-group, which aims to provide "a collection point for lists of articles contained in other reference sources relating to Christianity, which could serve as a basis for developing our own content". Created by John Carter, it is primarily a list of links, red or otherwise, for subjects which have an article in the reference works listed therein. This serves as a very useful list if any project members are "stuck for what to do" and there remains lots of potential for articles developed from this list.

By Gilderien

Calendar
This coming month (end-April through end-May) includes Easter Sunday for the Eastern Orthodox Church. Other major feasts in the next month include those of Matthias the Apostle, The Venerable Bede, and Empress Helena.

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Help requests
Please let us know if there are any particular areas, either individual articles or topics, which you believe would benefit from outside help from a variety of other editors. We will try to include such requests in future issues.

Ichthus is the newsletter of Christianity on Wikipedia • It is published by WikiProject Christianity
For submissions contact the Newsroom • To unsubscribe remove yourself from the list here
EdwardsBot (talk)17:06, 28 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

We are a week into Round 3, but it is off to a flying start, with Sven Manguard (submissions) claiming for the high-importance Portal:Sports and Portal:Geography (which are the first portals ever awarded bonus points in the WikiCup) and Cwmhiraeth (submissions) claiming for a did you know of sea, the highest scoring individual did you know article ever submitted for the WikiCup. Round 2 saw very impressive scores at close; first place Casliber (submissions) and second place Sturmvogel_66 (submissions) both scored over 1000 points; a feat not seen in Round 2 since 2010. This, in part, has been made possible by the change in the bonus points rules, but is also testament to the quality of the competition this year. Pool C and Pool G were most competitive, with three quarters of participants making it to Round 3, while Pool D was the least, with only the top two scorers making it through. The lowest qualifying score was 123, significantly higher than last year's 65, 2011's 41 or even 2010's 100.

The next issue of The Signpost is due to include a brief update on the current WikiCup, comparing it to previous years' competitions. This may be of interest to current WikiCup followers, and may help bring some more new faces into the community. We would also like to note that this round includes an extra competitor to the 32 advertised, who has been added to a random pool. This extra inclusion seems to have been the fairest way to deal with a small mistake made before the beginning of this round, but should not affect the competition in a large way. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please feel free to contact one of the judges.

A rules clarification: content promoted between rounds can be claimed in the round after the break, but not the round before. The case in point is content promoted on 29/30 April, which may be claimed in this round. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 15:46, 7 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors; awards and honours; contest results Articles: Last month's new Featured and A-Class content Book reviews: Dumelow on the French Foreign Legion and Nick-D on New Zealand military history Op-ed: Nick-D on military history tourism

World Digital Library Wikipedia Partnership - We need you!

Hi Tiamut! I'm the Wikipedian In Residence at the World Digital Library, a project of the Library of Congress and UNESCO. I'm recruiting Wikipedians who are passionate about history & culture to participate in improving Wikipedia using the WDL's vast free online resources. Participants can earn our awesome WDL barnstar and help to disseminate free knowledge from over 100 libraries in 7 different languages. Multilingual editing encouraged!!! But being multilingual is not a necessity to make this project a success. Please sign up to participate here. Thanks for editing Wikipedia and I look forward to working with you! EdwardsBot (talk) 19:31, 24 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

ICHTHUS

June 2013

From the Editor

Since its formation in 2006, WikiProject Christianity has come a long way. A significant number of new articles have appeared on a wide range of topics, and the quality of some key articles has seen dramatic improvement. Yet, by the very nature of the open, crowd-sourced development environment in which we operate, as the number of pages in the project has increased at times our attention has been naturally diluted. We should of course strive for quality everywhere, but we should remember that this newsletter is called Ichthus.

Starting this month we will start a "Focus on" series, where we will try to "bring Jesus back" and focus on him. For five consecutive issues we will focus on one aspect of the study of Jesus. The goal of this series is to inform our members of what the project contains and highlight those articles which have reached quality and stability.

From this month until November we will focus on the historical Jesus, a topic which has been the subject of much discussion on article talk pages, as well as the general media. This is an important topic, and we have a good set of well referenced articles on that now. Then, starting in December we will focus on Christ, and the spiritual and theological elements that the title entails. Following that the review of the life and ministry of Jesus in the New Testament, his miracles, and parables will take place. And each month the "Bookshelf" will mention a book that fits the theme of the month.

We hope you will enjoy this journey as we present a new aspect of Jesus each month. And given that as the number of project pages increases, the ratio of those watching the pages declines, we hope that more of you will watch some of these central pages that help define this project.

Church of the month

The current building of All Saints' Church, Winthorpe in Nottinghamshire, England which was completed in 1888, is at least the third version of the church, which dates back to at least the early 13th century.

Good articles and DYKs
The article Jesus received the good article mark last month, as did Cleeve Abbey. A number of churches were featured on the main page in the DYK section in May, namely St. Lamberti, Hildesheim, Karja church, Braaby Church, St Patrick's Liverpool, Vlah Church, Freerslev Church, Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, Mata-Utu, St. Michael's Cathedral (Sitka, Alaska), St. Lamberti, Hildesheim, Karja church, Braaby Church, St. Pierre Cathedral, Saint-Pierre, Mont Saint Michel Abbey, St Patrick's Church, Liverpool, Vlah Church, St Catherine of Siena Church, Cocking, Catedral Nuestra Señora de La Asunción, Roholte Church, Notre Dame Cathedral, Taiohae, Leicester Abbey, Caracas Cathedral, Caldey Abbey, King's Mead Priory, Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Hong Kong) andAll Saints' Church, Winthorpe, as well as the hymn What Wondrous Love Is This.

Focus on...

THE
HISTORICAL JESUS

Did Jesus exist? Did he walk the streets of Jerusalem? The Historicity of Jesus article answers these questions with a firm affirmative. Historicity does not discuss if Jesus walked on water, but if he walked at all. The issue was the subject of scholarly debate before the end of last century, but the academic debate is almost over now. As the article discusses, virtually all academic opposition to the existence of Jesus has evaporated away now and scholars see it as a concluded issue. The discussion is now just among mostly self-published non-academics.

In 2011 John Dickson tweeted that if anyone finds a professor of history who denies that Jesus lived,he would eat a page of his Bible (Matthew 1 he said). Dickson's Bible is still safe.

The article discusses the ancient sources that relate to Jesus and how they fit together to establish that he existed. The evidence for Jesus is not just based on the Christian gospels, but by inter-relating them with non-Christian sources, and the fact that they all "fit together". Moreover, the existence of Jesus is not supported just by Christian scholars and in recent years the detailed knowledge of Jewish scholars and their discoveries (e.g. Shlomo Pines' discovery of the Syriac Josephus) has proven highly beneficial. We encourage you to read and follow the article, for the existence of Jesus is central to the existence of Christianity.

From the bookshelf

Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence by Robert Van Voorst, 2000 ISBN 0-8028-4368-9

Just a few years after its publication, Van Voorst's book has become the standard comprehensive text for the discussion of ancient sources that relate to Jesus and his historicity. This detailed yet really readable book has received wide ranging endorsements - Blomberg and Harris separately referring to it as the most comprehensive treatment of the subject.

Did you know...

• ... that Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the initials "S. D. G.", for Soli Deo Gloria, at the beginning and end of all his church compositions to give God credit for the work, and that Handel at times did the same?

Calendar
The coming month includes days dedicated to the honor of Beheading of John the Baptist, Saints Peter and Paul, the Nativity of John the Baptist, and Saint Barnabas.

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Help requests
Please let us know if there are any particular areas, either individual articles or topics, which you believe would benefit from outside help from other editors. We will try to include such requests in future issues.

Ichthus is published by WikiProject Christianity.
For submissions contact the Newsroom • To unsubscribe remove yourself from the listhere

EdwardsBot (talk)

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors; awards and honours; contest results Articles: Last month's new Featured and A-Class content Book reviews: Works on the RNZAF, World War I in the Baltic, and British battleship construction Op-ed: Anchors Aweigh for the Majestic Titans

ICHTHUS

July 2013

From the Editor

Welcome to the July 2013 issue of Ichthus. We focus on the chronology of Jesus, as well as looking back at the project content improved over the last month.

WP:X has gained another Featured Article, Gospel of the Ebionites, by Ignocrates. The Gospel of the Ebionites is the name scholars give to an apocryphal gospel that supposedly belonged to a sect known as the Ebionites. It consists of seven short quotations discovered in a heresiology known as the Panarion, written by Epiphanius of Salamis, and its original title remains unknown. The text is a gospel harmony composed in Greek, and is believed to have been written during the middle of the 2nd century.

St Mihangel's Church, Llanfihangel yn Nhowyn was promoted to Good Article status, as was two other welsh churches, St Enghenedl's Church, Llanynghenedl, and St Peter's Church, Llanbedrgoch.

The main page also featured several DYK hooks for articles in our project, namely Bob Fu, List of places of worship in Tandridge (district), Catholic Press, Garendon Abbey, St. John's Episcopal Church (Jersey City, New Jersey), Pargev Martirosyan, Praskvica Monastery, Heather Preceptory, St. Augustin, Coburg, Longleat Priory, St Mihangel's Church, Llanfihangel yn Nhowyn, St Enghenedl's Church, Llanynghenedl, Christianization of Moravia, Christianization of Bohemia, Repton Abbey, St Peter's Church, Llanbedrgoch, Medingen Abbey, Elmhurst Christian Reformed Church, St. James on-the-Lines, and Leopold Karl von Kollonitsch.

Church of the month

St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery is part of Saint Sophia's Cathedral, Kiev in Ukraine. It is a functioning monastery that dates back to the Middle Ages.

Membership report
The parent Christianity WikiProject currently has 367 active members. We would like to welcome our newest members, Newchildrenofthealmighty, Evenssteven, Kerna96, and FutureTrillionaire. If any members, new or not, wish any assistance, they should feel free to leave a message at the Christianity noticeboard or with me or other individual editors to request it.

Focus on...

THE
HISTORICAL JESUS

When did Jesus live? When did he die? How do we know? We do, in fact, have excellent information about the time intervals for the life and death of Jesus. As in other people who lived and died in the first century, this gives an approximate date range, but still, give or take 3-4 years and we have pretty good estimates confirmed by a number of really diverse sources, ranging from inscriptions in Delphi to Roman and Jewish sources. The Chronology of Jesus article discusses how a wide variety of Christian, Jewish and Roman sources are used to establish the time-frame for the life and death of Jesus.

And all of his data fits together. For instance, the chronology of Paul had been discussed based on the Book of Acts long ago, then the Delphi Inscription is found in the 20th century in the Temple of Apollo. And guess what.. it confirms it and totally dates his trial in Corinth, which helps reaffirm the date of the crucifixion of Jesus. The same date range is independently estimated from the writings of Josephus on the Baptist's death. And it fits Isaac Newton's astronomical models for the crucifixion date as well as the independent lunar calculations of Humphreys. As that article shows, all these dates just fit together.

From the bookshelf

Chronos, kairos, Christos: nativity and chronological studies edited by J. Vardaman, E. M. Yamauchi 1989 ISBN 0-931464-50-1

This two volume book (with a very apt title) is gem-filled with scholarly research. Paul Maier's article in the first volume is a classic study on the chronology of Jesus and provides a useful summary of a number of issues.

Did you know...

• ... that the Russian journalist Nicolas Notovitch who in 1894 originated the story that there was evidence at the Hemis monastery that an adult Jesus had traveled to India, later confessed to fabricating his evidence?

Calendar
This month (July) contains the feast days of Mary Magdalene, and James, son of Zebedee.

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Help requests
Please let us know if there are any particular areas, either individual articles or topics, which you believe would benefit from outside help from a variety of other editors. We will try to include such requests in future issues.

Ichthus is published by WikiProject Christianity.
For submissions contact the Newsroom • To unsubscribe remove yourself from the list here

EdwardsBot (talk)20:30, 30 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This issue was distributed on behalf of Gilderien, current editor of the Ichthus, at 20:30, 30 June 2013 (UTC). Comments and other feedback are always welcome at his talk page.[reply]

We are down to our final 16: the 2013 semi-finals are upon us. A score of 321 was required to survive round 3, further cementing this as the most competitive WikiCup yet; round 3 was survived in 2012 with 243 points, in 2011 with 76 points and in 2010 with 250 points. The change may in part be to do with the fact that more articles are now awarded bonus points, in addition to more competitive play. Reaching the final has, in the past, required 573 points (2012, a 135% increase on the score needed to reach round 4), 150 points (2011, a 97% increase) and 417 points (2010, a 72% increase). This round has seen over a third of participants claiming points for featured articles (with seven users claiming for multiple featured articles) and most users have also gained bonus points. However, the majority of points continue to come from good articles, followed by did you know articles. In this round, every content type was utilised by at least one user, proving that the WikiCup brings together content contributors from all corners of the project.

Round 3 saw a number of contributions of note. Figureskatingfan (submissions) claimed the first featured topic points in this year's competition for her excellent work on topics related to Maya Angelou, the noted American author and poet. We have also continued to see high-importance articles improved as part of the competition: Ealdgyth (submissions) was awarded a thoroughly well-earned 560 points for her featured article Middle Ages and 102 points for her good article Battle of Hastings. Good articles James Chadwick and Stanislaw Ulam netted Hawkeye7 (submissions) 102 and 72 points respectively, while 72 points were awarded to Piotrus (submissions) for each of Władysław Sikorski and Emilia Plater, both recently promoted to good article status. Collaborative efforts between WikiCup participants have continued, with, for example, Casliber (submissions) and Sasata (submissions) being awarded 180 points each for their featured article on Boletus luridus.

A rules reminder: content promoted between rounds can be claimed in the round after the break, but not the round before. The case in point is content promoted on the 29/30 June, which may be claimed in this round. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. We are currently seeing concern about the amount of time people have to wait for reviews, especially at GAC- if you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to reduce the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 09:52, 1 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

23:02, 3 July 2013 (UTC)

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors; awards and honours; contest results Articles: Last month's new Featured and A-Class content Book reviews: Nick-D looks at Australia's frontier wars Interview: What Wikimedia chapters can offer military history editors

ICHTHUS

August 2013

From the Editor

Welcome to the August 2013 issue of the WikiProject Christianity newsletter. We focus on the historical Jesus and reflect on the last month.

The project has another featured picture, The ruins of Holyrood Chapel, a digitisation of an oil-on-canvas painting. Our top-importance article, Jesus, has been nominated for Featured Article status, the discussion can be seen here; Knights of Colombus has also been nominated as a FAC.

Ecgbert (bishop) and Church architecture in Scotland have both this month achieved Good Article status.

Our project had several of its articles featured in the main page DYK section, including Hinckley Priory, Little Chapel, St Peter's Church, Ropsley, Chip Ingram, St John the Evangelist's Church, Corby Glen, Great George Street Congregational Church, St Mary's Church, Walton-on-the-Hill and Bunge church.

Our thanks go to all of those who have worked to achieve these article milestones.

Church of the month

This image, of Maillezais Cathedral and created by Selbymay was this month promoted to featured picture status.

Membership report
We would like to welcome our newest members, Thechristophermorris, Psmidi and Jchthys. Thank you all for your interest in this effort. If any members, new or not, wish any assistance, they should feel free to leave a message at the Christianity noticeboard or with me or other individual editors to request it.

Focus on...

THE
HISTORICAL JESUS

What was Jesus like? What did he preach? Did he claim to be the Messiah? Did he predict an apocalypse? What can we know about him outside a religious context? The Historical Jesus article discusses what can be known about Jesus with various degrees of probability. While scholars agree on the over all flow and outline of Jesus' life (his baptism by John, debated Jewish authorities, healings, and his crucifixion by Pilate) they have built various and diverging portraits of the rest of his life. These range from minimalist portraits that accept very little of the gospel accounts to maximalists who accept most of the accounts as historical.

The portraits of Jesus have at times been unwitting reflections of the researchers themselves, and Crossan once quipped that some authors "do autobiography and call it biography". However, the study of historical Jesus has made one thing clear: there is so much to learn about Jesus that the more one looks, the more there is to discover.

From the bookshelf

Jesus of Nazareth: An Independent Historian's Account of His Life and Teaching by Maurice Casey 2010 ISBN 0-567-64517-7

In this book Maurice Casey not only draws on his special expertise in the Aramaic traditions and the Q source, but provides a comprehensive review of the various approaches to the historical Jesus.

Did you know...

• ... that in 1951 Christianity was the second largest religion in the world with 500 million followers, compared to 520 million Buddhists, but by 2013 it had gained the top spot with about 2.2 billion Christians?

Calendar
This month we celebrate the feasts of St Lawrence, St Bernard, and St Augustine.

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Help requests
Please let us know if there are any particular areas, either individual articles or topics, which you believe would benefit from outside help from other editors. We will try to include such requests in future issues.

Ichthus is published by WikiProject Christianity.
For submissions contact the Newsroom • To unsubscribe remove yourself from the list here

EdwardsBot (talk)21:56, 31 July 2013 (UTC) --Gilderien Chat|What I've done 21:56, 31 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

We're halfway through this year's penultimate round, and the competition is moving along well. Pool A's Sasata (submissions) currently leads overall, while Pool B's Sturmvogel_66 (submissions) is second. Both leaders are WikiCup veterans, and both have already scored over 600 points this month. If the round were to end today, Miyagawa (submissions), with 274 points, would be the lowest-scoring participant to make it through. This indicates that participants will need a score comparable to last year's (573, the highest ever) to qualify for the final. The high scores this year are a testament both to the quality of participants and to the increased focus on significant content (eligible for bonus points) in this year's competition. So far this round, both Sasata and Cwmhiraeth (submissions) have made up over half of their score through bonus points, with, for example, high importance FA koala earning Sasata a total of 440 points (from a multiplier of 4.4) and high-importance GA sea earning Cwmhiraeth a total of 216 points (from a multiplier of 7.2). Other articles on important topics submitted this round include a featured article on the Norman conquest of England by Ealdgyth (submissions), and good articles on Nobel laureate in literature Henryk Sienkiewicz, Nobel laureate in physics Hans Bethe, and the noted Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryū. These articles are by Piotrus (submissions), Hawkeye7 (submissions) and Sturmvogel_66 respectively.

Other than that, there is not much to report! If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to reduce the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 23:17, 31 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Your Military History Newsletter Project news: From the editors; awards and honours; contest results Articles: Last month's new Featured and A-Class content Book reviews: Nick-D looks at the death of Osama bin Laden Op-ed: Sturmvogel_66 presents his secrets of prolific contribution

Greetings,

Official notification language:

"Notice of Neutral point of view noticeboard discussion"
This message is being sent to inform you that there currently is a discussion at Wikipedia:Neutral point of view/Noticeboard regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. The thread is Rujm el-Hiri: in 'Israeli-administered' or 'Israeli-occupied' Golan?.
Thank you.

Explanation: We've had a good faith discussion on the 'Rujm el-Hiri' talk page about the use of 'occupied' vs. 'administered' when applied to Golan and it's clear that editors are not going to reach consensus. Accordingly, I've created a new section on Neutral point of view/Noticeboard about this issue. The section may be accessed via
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view/Noticeboard#Rujm_el-Hiri:_in_.27Israeli-administered.27_or_.27Israeli-occupied.27_Golan.3F

Four editors have been named in the posting: you, Nableezy, Supreme Deliciousness, and Zero0000, since you've all argued for 'occupied' and checked it into the article. For instance, you may recall your edit on 12:40, 9 April 2013‎ , with your comment: "(well this is important to point out that its in the israeli occupied part.) " The issue in the Neutral point of view noticeboard discussion is whether 'occupied' is the appropriate word, or whether the insistence on using this particular word an expression of partisan bias which introduces needless political controversy(e.g. the link to an article on the legal history of 'occupation' legal documents). Of course I invite you and all others to make your own case and look forward to seeing your edits. The resolution process should be interesting.

Let's hope for a final settlement on this particular intellectual-territorial dispute soon and return to fruitful collective labor. :-)

--Ron
Ronreisman (talk) 01:51, 23 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Greetings,

Official notification language:

"Notice of Neutral point of view noticeboard discussion"
This message is being sent to inform you that there currently is a discussion at Wikipedia:Neutral point of view/Noticeboard regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. The thread is Rujm el-Hiri: in 'Israeli-administered' or 'Israeli-occupied' Golan?.
Thank you.

Explanation: We've had a good faith discussion on the 'Rujm el-Hiri' talk page about the use of 'occupied' vs. 'administered' when applied to Golan and it's clear that editors are not going to reach consensus. Accordingly, I've created a new section on Neutral point of view/Noticeboard about this issue. The section may be accessed via
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view/Noticeboard#Rujm_el-Hiri:_in_.27Israeli-administered.27_or_.27Israeli-occupied.27_Golan.3F

Four editors have been named in the posting: you, Nableezy, Supreme Deliciousness, and Zero0000, since you've all argued for 'occupied' and checked it into the article. For instance, you may recall your edit on 18:37, 26 November 2011‎ , with your comment: "missing detail about occupation of syrian territory)" * The issue in the Neutral point of view noticeboard discussion is whether 'occupied' is the appropriate word, or whether the insistence on using this particular word an expression of partisan bias which introduces needless political controversy(e.g. the link to an article on the legal history of 'occupation' legal documents). Of course I invite you and all others to make your own case and look forward to seeing your edits. The resolution process should be interesting.

Let's hope for a final settlement on this particular intellectual-territorial dispute soon and return to fruitful collective labor. :-)

--Ron

• http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rujm_el-Hiri&diff=462604648&oldid=462604128

Ronreisman (talk) 02:01, 23 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This year's final is upon us. Our final eight, in order of last round's score, are:

1. Hawkeye7 (submissions), a WikiCup newcomer who has contributed on topics of military history and physics, including a number of high-importance topics. Good articles have made up the bulk of his points, but he has also scored a great deal of bonus points. He has the second highest score overall so far, with more than 3000 points accumulated.
2. Casliber (submissions), another WikiCup veteran who reached the finals in 2012, 2011 and 2010. He writes on a variety of topics including botany, mycology and astronomy, and has claimed the highest or joint highest number of featured articles every round so far this year. He has the third highest score overall, with just under 3000 points accumulated.
3. Cwmhiraeth (submissions), 2012 WikiCup champion, who writes mostly on marine biology. She has also contributed to high-importance topics, seeing huge numbers of bonus points for high-importance featured and good articles. Previous rounds have seen her scoring the most bonus points, with scoring spread across did you knows, good articles and featured articles.
4. Sasata (submissions), a WikiCup veteran who finished in second place in 2012, and competed as early as 2009. He writes articles on biology, especially mycology, and has scored highly for a number of collaborations at featured article candidates.
5. Sturmvogel_66 (submissions), the winner of the 2010 competition. His contributions mostly concern Naval history, and he has scored a very large number of points for good articles and good article reviews in every round. He is the highest scorer overall this year, with over 3500 points in total.
6. Ealdgyth (submissions), who is competing in the WikiCup for the second time, though this will be her first time in the final. A regular at FAC, she is mostly interested in British medieval history, and has scored very highly for some top-importance featured articles on the topic.
7. Miyagawa (submissions), a finalist in 2012 and 2011. He writes on a broad variety of topics, with many of this year's points coming from good articles about Star Trek. Good articles make up the bulk of his points, and he had the most good articles back in round 2; he was also the highest scorer for DYK in rounds 1 and 2.
8. Adam Cuerden (submissions) has previously been involved with the WikiCup, but hasn't participated for a number of years. He scores mostly from restoration work leading to featured picture credits, but has also done some article writing and reviewing.

We say goodbye to eight great participants who did not qualify for the final: Piotrus (submissions), Figureskatingfan (submissions), ThaddeusB (submissions), Dana boomer (submissions), Status (submissions), Ed! (submissions), 12george1 (submissions), Calvin999 (submissions). Having made it to this stage is still an excellent achievement, and you can leave with your heads held high. We hope to see you all again next year. Signups are now open for the 2014 WikiCup, which will begin on 1 January. All Wikipedians, whatever their interest or level of experience, are warmly invited to participate in next year's competition.

This last month has seen some incredible contributions; for instance, Cwmhiraeth's Starfish and Ealdgyth's Battle of Hastings—two highly important, highly viewed pages—made it to featured article status. It would be all too easy to focus solely on these stunning achievements at the expense of those participants working in lower-scoring areas, when in fact all WikiCup participants are doing excellent work. A mention of everything done is impossible, but here are a few: Last round saw the completion of several good topics (on the 1958, 1959 and 1962 Atlantic hurricane seasons) to which 12george1 had contributed. Calvin999 saw "S&M" (song), on which he has been working for several years, through to featured article status on its tenth try. Figureskatingfan continued towards her goal of a broad featured/good topic on Maya Angelou, with two featured and four good articles. ThaddeusB contributed significantly to over 20 articles which appeared on the main page's "in the news" section. Adam Cuerden continued to restore a large number of historical images, resulting in over a dozen FP credits this round alone. The WikiCup is not just about top-importance featured articles, and the work of all of these users is worthy of commendation.

Finally, the usual notices: If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to reduce the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 05:21, 29 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]